Dark Side of the Moon
by NeonZangetsu
Summary: Some secrets are best left in the shadows. Some knowledge should never come to light. An ordinary mission to to the Land of Whirpools yields not only the key to Naruto's past but something unexpected as well. Something strange. Something dark. Dark NarutoxHarem. Massive Harem. Rated M for a reason! Violence, lemons, lust and language, Star Wars Crossover!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Where did this idea come from, you ask? Well, it occured to me that I never gave this request a go, for a dark, TRULY DARK Naruto. Dark, cruel, saddistic in nearly every way, yet kind to the ones who do not incur his wrath. There are an abundance of girls in his harem some of them from the star wars universe, others from the Naruto verse...**

**...this is the culmination of that effort.**

_"To ask why we fight is to why leaves fall. It is in their nature."_

_~Darth Karr._

**Lord**

Death hung over him like a vulture, stripping his carcass bare.

He had been bested by his enemy. Beaten. Broken. The storm roared over their heads, a world of storms that would never cease its torrential rain; not a once would the sun shine on these lands. A single scarlet saber hung over his head, its heat searing into his neck, its hook-handle engraved into his mind forevemore. He struggled to push it away but his hands would not respond; his legs would no comply with the demand to rise and continue the fight. His opponent removed the blade from his neck and held it high; a single crimson lance piercing the stormy heavens.

He uttered but a single sentence, a phrase that pierced the gloom between them.

**"There can be only one."**

The blade came crashing down and then there was only blackness.

* * *

_...time to wake up, master."_

Golden eyes the color of evening skies snapped open to the sound of a woman's voice. _A dream? _Ah, yes. He remembered now. It was just a dream. Nothing more. The knowledge came back to him as soon as he soon as he sought it and he pounced upon it, fingers closing around the memory like an iron fist. He'd finally fallen asleep, and the dawn had finally come. Now, the man known merely as "master" blinked the sleep from his eyes, his stern features pinched in a frown as the world reluctantly came back to him. The last vestiges of his nightmare clung to him; insidious whispers of pain and despair promising him oblivion if he did not soon act to eliminate his enemy. He carefully ignored them. He'd learnt long ago that to rebel againstones future guaranteed catastrophe. He would remain on guard, as he always had; would remain ever-vigilant against any an all threats to the small empire he'd erected, and that would the end of that.

A low growl fled from his lips; a predator skulking in its den.

"Servant," He croaked. "What time is it?"

"Half-past noon, my master." came the reply.

He ruthlessly bit back a groan.

"Already?"

"Yes, m'lord."

Once more the voice rang within the confines of his mind, ushering his body forth, from the murky haze of sleep. Brushing the bedraggled blond bangs from his face, he raised a scarred palm, reflecting upon his fingers in a feeble attempt to ward off the early morning light while his eyes adjusted. But there was nothing feeble about this man. He radiated power, every inch of him; the most subtle air of arrogance and malice offset by a touch of passion lurking in those sinister saffron slits.

He turned his head from where he lay and abruptly he was wide awake; his mind alerted by the sudden and _unwelcome_ prescence of another in his inner sanctum.

_"Sakura."_ he all but spat the name. "You were to wake me at dawn."

"My sincerest apologies, milord."

He briefly entertained the thought of destroying her in recompense for her constant temerity; only to discard it. With the Godaime dead, she was the foremost healer in the land. Perhaps even the entire galaxy. _No,_ he told himself, her use as a healer still outweighed any lingering irritation he might still feel at her prescence. For now. But when the day came that another surpassed her...well, he wouldn't have anymore use for her now, would he?

"I trust you slept well, your lordship?" the voice asked of him once more. Its owner stood just beyond the field of his peripheal vision, green eyes averted, head downcast, face hidden by short pink tresses, framing her heart-shaped face. He glowered at her for the span of a single beat, his anger simmering at the corners of his concsiousness. Her prescence angered him but he refused to let his emotions master him. The fury was _his_ to control, his to use as he saw fit.

"Schedule." He barked at the woman, refusing to so much as look her in the eye as he rose. If the woman was at all aware of this blatant disrespect, she did little to show it.

"You have a two o' clock meeting with the village council," she began, reciting what would soon prove to be a lengthy list of his day-to-day activities. "Followed by a meeting with the jedi ambassador from Coruscant at three, followed by lunch. Then your prescence is humbly requested by Lords Raikage and Tsuchikage to discuss the matters of your newest apprentices-

"Tell the old fools to come _here."_ He growled out, interrupting her. "They know I cannot leave the planet."

The pinkette bowed.

"It shall be done, milord."

She risked a glance at him as he rose, propping himself up on his elbows, revealing his naked torso to the world. His body was chiseled yet lean in the early morning light; mark for mark that of a warrior. A bladseman and a shinobi, in every way. Yet even he was not without his own set of scars. They crisscrossed his back and shoulders, lined the length of his arms and even his neck; each countless times where he'd passed within a hairsbreadth of his final death. Sometimes she wondered why she still stayed with him. Why she still served the man who'd _killed_ her first love and now, held her second hostage. He clearly loathed the very sight of her after what she'd done to him, but her ability to heal outstripped all others. Not all could mend their own wounds as he could, and thus, her services were still needed. For now.

In the old days, she could've easily plied her charms to get whatever she wanted from him. Back then she had only to bat her eyelashes and he became putty in her hands, willing to do whatever she wished, so long as she wished it. Those days were long since gone. Her one-time love had outgrown her long ago, moved onto bigger and better things. And, when he finally found a healer that surpassed her in skill...well, she'd just have to ensure that never happened now, wouldn't she?

_"Why are you still staring?"_

Sakura Haruno flinched as the master's gaze pinnioned hers, skewering her to the wall with the force of his stare. Before she could open her mouth to protest, before she could think to deny whether she'd been staring at his body, he reacted. _Violently._ Even as the words formed on her lips, he pinched two fingers together and an invisible hand closed around her throat. She gasped, the air dying in her lungs, her careful machinations falling away, her feet scrabbling against empty air as he lifted her from the floor.

"M-My...deepest...apologies...Naruto." she gasped out, regretting her words as the hold upon her windpipe intensified, as he crushed it still tighter. "Please...forgive me, Darth Karr!" The choke lessened marginally, her eyes all but bulging as he gestured with his hand. Her back greeted the wall with enough force to break bone; the hardened walls biting into her spine a moment longer before he released her.

_Karr._

Darth Karr. An amalgamation of his own name and that of the creature sealed inside him. Fitting. The title was by no means unintentional, he was sith. He'd studied the holocron he'd found, learned of the dark powers within him a power he and others could command at will. It wasn't at all long before he discarded his old name, taking on the mantle of Darth. How long had it been since he'd taken to calling himself thus? Karr. Nearly a decade now, surely. Funny, how time slipped in and out of ones hands when blessed by longevity.

"Do not let me catch you staring at me like that again." he warned, allowing her to stand woodenly, without care. "Do not _call_ me that again," he continued, "lest I will find another use for you and your...talents. And I promise you, Sakura...you won't enjoy it."

Sakura shivered. She knew his words were real; she'd seen him rip a man in half just for insulting one of his apprentices. He was quite capable of cruelty when it suited him; and it suited him now. She managed a soft nod as her liege and lord lowered his hand, the last remnants of the invisible hand finally fleeing from her throat.

He began to pull himself from his bed-a feat easier said than done when one considered the number of young women nestled against his lower body. Women. Plural. As in more than one. Much more. _Many more._ Their number leapt from one to five then _ten_ as his golden gaze raked across the spacious bed; some his apprentices, others his wives, and still others mere servants he'd bedded on a whim. Nor were they of the same race and species altogether; amongst them a cerulean-skinned Twi'lek nestled most prominently against his lower leg, her twin lekku twitching now as she stirred against him.

"Master...?"

"Go back to sleep, Aayla." he soothed, touching a hand to the former jedi's face, cupping her cheek in his fingers. The Twi'lek sighed at his touch, chocolate brown eyes_-not yet golden-_drifting shut as she returned unto slumber. Karr felt a spike of anger trail across the room at him. It came from Sakura. He favored her with a smirk, his fingers trailing across the Twi'lek's bare back, savoring her smooth skin.

Sith though he might be, that did not make him an uncaring by nature. He'd found that a fatal flaw in his predecessors; the ones who trained him had been cold and ruthless and implacable, refusing to care for anyone other than their own ambitions. It was not a mistake their_-former-_apprentice would be making anytime soon. Though he did find it tedious to _negotiate_ with these hated jedi rather than wipe them out altogether. Their tolerance lay not in the fact that he'd slain dozens of their order but rather in his own reluctance to leave his homeworld and seek out others of his own kind.

Order or not, their numbers were few and those he did not kill often fell prey to the power he commanded. Aayla was merely one of them. Did that make him a bad influence? He didn't think so. It was not as if he _made_ them follow him; he simply showed those of the light that they were helpless before the true power of the dark side. And if they were wise enough to cast off the shackles of the light and study under him, then who was he to refuse them their wisdom?

Still, the sheer number of woman in his bed bogled the mind; how could one man possibly find comfort let alone _sleep_ in such a coffin of flesh and sex? Quite easily, once you became accustomed to it. It had taken him some time to accept that his power would call others to him, both in his own village, and across the known galaxy, but never in his wildest dreams had he dreamnt that so many would ally to his cause. Some had taken convincing, others bowed before his power, forsaking all they knew in service to him...

...and more.

The thought_-the memory-_of last night's passionate orgy stole a sinister smile from his features. His gaze glazed across the sith holocron at his bedside, safeguarded by countless contact poisons. Anyone fool enough to touch that most prized possession of his would die within minutes without the antidote. Were it not for this sacred artifact on his nightstand he'd never have known of the power he'd possessed; the power of his mother and that of clan Uzumaki. They'd been all but wiped from the face of the earth save for himself and his cousin, Karin. Now he knew why. The fools had feared their power. Not just that of the seals, but the powerful and inherent talents of the Force itself. This innocent looking little cube had been his first step all those years ago. During a routine mission to the ruinated land of Uzugakure to investigate the ruins of the Uzumaki Clan had led to the discovery of the holocron in a secret room beneath the rubble.

Uncaring for his nakedness, he pulled himself from the tangle of women and padded across the floor.

"Sakura," he growled, pushing past her. "Why are you still standing there?"

Fear radiated outward from the pinkette in waves, palpable to him even from across the room. A prickle of irritation pricked him at her cowardice, but he carefully chose to ignore it. Rather he reached past her, plucking a rob from the the dresser a thick hand shading his face from the encroaching rays of sunlight.

An errant thought sent the shutters slamming shut, startling Sakura.

"Leave us." He barked, beckoning with a heavy hand. For a moment, it looked as though she might refuse. He saw the anger behind those eyes of jade...and desire. Jealousy, that she was not one of the females to join him in his bed. She would never be one of them. Once, she might've been, but not after her betrayal. Now, she would never be. She would know what it was like to have the one she loved tormented day in and day out with only her loyal service ensuring his survival. A small part of him-a very very small part-said that this was wrong. The rest of it roared at it until it retreated, cowering into a corner. He took no small amount of joy an pleasure as she flung her from the room, fuming.

He felt a subtle tug against his wrist; an unfocused force-pull that did little more than draw him a step backwards and towards the bed. He arched a bright brow as he saw that some of his apprentices had begun to stir, a host of golden eyes greeted his own. Now he could understand her anger. She'd sensed that his apprentice(s) had begun to stir. He dropped the robe, allowing the black garment to pool at the floor.

"Naruto-sama," one of them whispered, favoring him with a coy smile-an expression that made his knees buckle with yearning and desire. He only ever allowed them, his students, to call him by his true name. Anyone else who dared invoke the ghost of Uzumaki Naruto was punishable by death.

"You weren't going to leave us, were you?" purred another.

"Of course not." Karr smiled. "I could never leave you unattended." He could have easily created shadow clones to satisfy them, but there was just something so _satisfying_ when it came to indulging in the pleasures of ones flesh that he could not bear to refuse them any longer. Neglecting the possibility of using clones, he strode back to the bed, eating up the distance between them in swift, thick strides. Their hands reached out for him, a chorus of giggles greeting him as he slid back into bed.

"Now...ladies...where were we?"

Aayla was the one to answer him.

"You were allowing us to please you, master."

Naruto grinned a ferocious grin as the blue-skinned twi'lek crawled into his lap, beating her fellow apprentices to the punch. A chorus of frustrated groans greeted their sudden coupling when she melded her mouth with his, tongue dancing over him with a ferverous desire. He felt the others hands against him, seeking to pry his newest apprentice away, yet not daring to cause her harm. The occasional squabble was held at bay only by his power. They knew better than to try and kill one another; the last time two of his former apprentices decided to duke it out they'd nearly gotten themselves killed, and Lord Karr was furious for months on end. For a being to anger him meant certain death. When they finally broke apart, he wanted nothing more than to take the former knight right then and there.

"I was, was I?"

"You've had your fun, Aayla!" One of them growled. "Now its my turn!"

Karr cackled, feeding off their anger and frustration and of course, their lust. It was like a drug; he couldn't get enough of it!

"Ladies ladies, one at a time, there's plenty for everyone!" Their response was to drag him forward, hauling him into the sea of bodies. He was only slightly dissapointed that their lightsabers hadn't come out this time, but he soon found himself contented in other matters all the same.

His gaze slipped to the holocron once more as their hands and mouths roamed over overy every inch of him, reflecting back on what it was that had led him to become the supreme ruler of this planet.

This innocent looking little cube had been his first step toward greatness all those years ago. A routine mission to the ruinated land of Uzugakure to investigate disappearances surrounding the ruins of the Uzumaki Clan had led to more than just the discovery of the perpetrator; but a holocron secreted away in an ancient chamber room beneath the rubble...

...a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

**A/N: And there you have it. I've named only one of the girls in Naruto's interstellar harem. Aayla Secura. How he came to possess such power is anyone's guess, but I think the hints I've left make it quite evident. But how the devil did he get like this?! A badass shinobi/sith with countless females under his sway and at his beck and call? And in the star wars universe no less?! I'm not all too sure whether to name this a crossover or not, I might just leave it up in the Naruto section. Timeline-wise this takes place after the Fourth Shinobi War, yet shortly before the Clone Wars. Vote for the harem pairing if you please and of course...**

**...REVIEW! It is your destiny! **

**R&R! =D**


	2. Where it all Began

**A/N: Where did this idea come from, you ask? Well, it occured to me that I never gave this request a go, for a dark, TRULY DARK Naruto. Dark, cruel, saddistic in nearly every way, yet kind to the ones who do not incur his wrath. There are an abundance of girls in his harem some of them from the star wars universe, others from the Naruto verse and as I have said prior, in the last chapter ****this is the culmination of that effort. What's more...**

**...there's a hint of something to be found in this chapter, if you read between the lines. Also, for those who have lost anyone in the Conneticut shootings...my prayers go out to you. I can't believe someone-ANYONE-would commit an act so depraved, so monstrous as to take the life of all those precious children. And just before Christmas, too! My thoughts and prayers go out to you all...but not to the monster who took his life rather than face the consequences of his actions. May he rot in hell for what he has done! And on that not...**

**...I humbly present you with the next chapter.**

_"Killing someone in cold blood...that's just wrong!"_

_~Uzumaki Naruto (soon-to-be Dark Lord of the Sith)._

**Where it all Began**

It began long ago in the ruins of the Land of Whirpools. Assigned to invesigate a strange series of dissapearances a squad had been sent out and to Naruto's delight, he would be joining them. It hadn't been easy. He'd all but begged to be sent on this mission, even going so far as to prostrate himself before Tsunade-baachan. He was an Uzumaki, he'd argued! This might be his only chance to see the ruins of his land, to learn about a heritage he'd never known! Hell, he might even learn who his parents were! He...may have forgotten to mention the last part to Tsunade, though.

Back then, he hadn't been entirely focused on the mission, nor had he expected to find much; maybe a few scrolls or something? Never in his wildest dreams had he hoped to find anything of special significance; but he had to _try_ had to see the ruins of his clan's land for himself. It was a whimsy of his younger days, one he spat upon now. He'd been naive. Foolish. Stupid. That same stupidity had nearly cost him the lives of his friends

He risked a glance at other members of his squad; he was the only member of Team Seven present; the rest of them them were not on the assignment today. Rather, he found himself surrounded by familiar faces here in this joint operation; among them Yamanaka Ino, Temari, and to his disbelief, led by Mitarashi Anko. Looking back...what the hell had Tsunade been thinking?! In her haste to assemble a squad she'd gone and thrown together three of _the_ most unpredictable females he'd ever met! And that was only the first group. Their second squad was composed of Inuzuka Kiba, a lifelong friend of his, with whom he had no problem working with as well as Shino Aburama, Hinata Hyuuga and the like. That was where it ended.

Because _they_ were being led by Kurenai Yuhi.

There was a certain coldness to be said about the jounin-sensei; her body could drive you to distraction, wrapped as it was in that scintilating outfit and yet, you never truly felt like she was looking at you but rather, as if she were staring through you, peering into the depths of your soul. Those were the rumors and Naruto hadn't until now, the genin hadn't given them much thought. Until now.

Until now, Naruto hadn't felt those sinister shades of scarlet boring into his back. And now, that he did, it didn't exactly leave him feeling comfortable. Skittish. Nervous. These were the things he felt and he took little comfort from them. Though he wasn't at the head of the group he almost wished he was, just to escape the woman's scathing glare. Had he done something to upset her? He couldn't remember. What had he done to rouse her wrath so? He'd reported to the gates first thing this morning, waited for everyone to arrive, then set out with them. Perhaps, because he was the odd man out? Everyone already had their squad assignment long before he asked-begged!-to join the mission, and as such, he _was_ essentially the odd man out, stuck in Anko's group at the last minute.

"You seem distracted, Naruto-kun."

"Wha?" He blinked_-when the devil had she snuck up on him?!-_suddenly aware of the jounin's prescence. She was at his elbow, matching him stride for stride, crimson orbs peering into his sapphire. Naruto sputtered a hairsbreadth longer, fumbling for a response. "I'm not distracted." he lied through his teeth. "I'm perfectly focused. That's me! The picture of focus!"

The jounin arched a dark brow at his blase attitude, but did not reproach him for it. Instead_-and much to his disbelief-_she continued the conversation.

"You're looking forward to seeing your homeland, I trust?" she asked.

"Konoha is my homeland." The blond argued, but his protest was weak. He'd been born in the village, just as everyone else, and yet, he couldn't help but feel alienated at times. Not just because of his tenant-he'd long since accepted that part of himself-but because he knew next to nothing of himself. Of course he knew who _he_ was, but he had little to no idea where he'd come from. Where his parents had come from. The only tie he had to his past was his surname, Uzumaki. And by the gods, he was going to learn about them! His clan! Of course he was looking forward to it!

...yeah, I guess." He relented. "It'd be nice to learn about my parents. Where they came from, who they were...

"Even if that means changing the very fabric of your destiny?"

_"What?"_ The question was so soft, so sudden, so startling, that it took Naruto's breath away. Had he truly heard her say that? "Did you say something, Kurenai-sensei?"

"No," She shook her head, her face dimpling into a frown, "Its nothing. You just seem distracted."

Naruto squirmed restlessly beneath her gaze, suddenly uncertain of what he should say; how should he put it? _Yes, I am distracted, sensei. Very distracted. Why? Because you've been glaring bloody red daggers at me ever since we left the village gates!_ Yet he daren't say that. Not aloud. Kurenai was well known for her reputation as the Ice Queen of Konoha, and just as well. She made mincemeat out of lesser men than him, and he had no desire to become her next victim, Naruto did not!

"M-Maybe we should just focus on the mission?" he ventured, looking for an opportunity to escape.

"Perhaps you're right." She nodded, the slightest of smiles pulling at her lips as she turned her face aside. "We can discuss this later."

Naruto nearly missed a step, stumbling on the road.

"L-Later?"

"Are you adverse to speaking with me further?" Kurenai asked archly, never missing a beat.

"No!" Naruto shouted, abruptly abashed by the looks of his fellow shinobi as they locked upon him. "I mean, no." He said, softly this time. " I wouldn't mind. Its just that...we've never really talked like this before...

"Is that so?" The raven-haired woman surprised him by blinking just then, a look of genuine_-albeit quiet-_shock blossoming across her delicate features. She touched a finger to her chin in thought, eyes drifting shut for the span of two beats. "I was certain I'd spoken with you at least once before." She shrugged to herself slim shoulders rising and falling dismissing whatever he'd been about to say. "We will have to remedy that in the near future, then?" Her eyes left the unspoken question, and for a moment, he faltered.

_"Ha?"_

"I'm asking you if you would like to speak with me later, Naruto-kun." She smiled then, and it was not the stiff, uncaring smile to which he'd been accustomed. It was a true smile, full of warmth and kindness and...just a hint of something else. It was gone before he could think twice on it, leaving him to wonder if it had ever been.

...I'd like that."

"As would I." She nodded curtly and stepped away; the warmth gone from her face, replaced by those dispassionate rubies once more.

Naruto was left scratching his head as the Jounin abruptly fell back, retreating towards her students, falling in conversation with them as though nothing had ever happened. What the hell _did_ just happen? The so-called Ice Queen of Konoha had suddenly taken an interest in him? Of all people? He shook his head dismissing the thought.

_...dismissing the memory._

_(End Flashback)_

* * *

Once more Darth Karr crawled from the coffin of flesh and sex that was his bed; no amount of passion and ecstasy would keep him from getting dressed this time. He stepped to the dresser and reached for his robes, a stray thought ushered them into the air an over his shoulders, the Force bending before his will as he donned the black garment and traditional body armour in slow succession. He thought back on his memories of that crimson-eyed jonin, of Kurenai Yuuhi how she had been the first one to lead him down the dark path. Whether or not that had been her intent at the time remained to be seen.

As she promised, they had talked over the campfire that very night. Just talked. Nothing special. They spoke of simple things, his likes, her dislikes, his favorte foods, her preferred training methods. Nothing more. And when he woke on the next morn to find himself alone in his tent and could not remember how he had gotten there, he thought nothing of it. The idea that a woman had taken interest in him for whatever reason was so ludicrous, so absurd, he hadn't even bothered to consider it, let alone given it thought.

And yet after their initial conversation, there came another. And another. And still another. They spoke each night, when they made camp, for their journey to the land of Whirpools was indeed a long one. Conversation was clearly a foreign thing for the Jounin, and yet, always she seemed to smile whenever Naruto delved into personal matters; whenever he made a mention of his supposed heritage or his parents. At the time, he had thought she was merely being polite. Now, Karr knew better. He knew now what his younger self did not; knew to read one's body and prepare oneself for whatever reaction ones words might produce. And as he knew now, he chastised his young self for his own ignorance.

_Kurenai had been leading him on._

Slowly, Naruto began to notice things about her; how she would occsionally touch a hand to his, the way seemed to lean forward whenever he spoke, presenting him with ample chance to do something his younger self wouldnt have dared contemplate. It took some time for him to realize that it was _she_ who brought him back to his tent when he fell asleep at the fire, and during this time, his conciousness began to spread outward, at an alarming pace. His tunnel vision receded. Saw the world. Noticed things.

_Became aware._

Hinata, for one. She often risked a glance at him when she thought he wasn't looking. Yet even with his newfound awareness, he couldn't help but wonder why. He tried to ask her about it, once, but her face flushed a grand crimson color and she fainted dead away. Naruto stopped trying after that. Whatever it was, she'd tell him, when she was ready. He certainly wasn't going to keep asking if she kept fainting!

He also became aware of the others during this time, noticing how Kiba and Shino, and most notably _Hinata_ would stare at him-at times in disbelief, other times outright sorrowed confusion-as they conversed. He didn't at all find it odd back then that he mostly chatted with Kurenai, during the entirety of their journey; the occasional glance and bemused smirk from Anko, told him she actually suspected what was happening, and would enjoy every moment of his discomfort.

Gradually, he ceased to care about that, too. He found himself looking forward to each night when they turned in, found himself delighting in the conversations with a woman he'd once thought to be an Ice Queen. He'd been wrong. Terribly, horribly wrong. If Kurenai was a queen of anything she was a Queen of Fire. When she meant something, when she spoke to him with such enthusiasm her eyes practically swam in lakes of flames and heat.

And then one night, their conversations changed. Kurenai began to speak to him of something more; not of jutsu nor likes or dislikes or even her past. She spoke to him of the Force. An energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together." she told him. It was much like chakra, in a sense that anyone could have it; but it was not something you acquired through years of training, not at all. Then she showed him, shocked him; levitated a rock in the palm of her hand as though it were naught but a feather. _It was something you must be born with,_ she said. She was a mere novice in its ways, able to perform the slightest of tricks, despite her abhorent lack of training.

What she told him next proved to be even more astounding; she believed he too held this power. Nearly the whole of the Uzumaki clan was composed of these Force wielders shortly before being wiped out by a strange epidemic and war decades before.

_Bah!_

Darth Karr scoffed at the concept now. For he alone knew the truth. There had been no epidemic to cripple the Uzumaki, nor was there ever any war to end them; his clan had been destroyed by the jedi. How? The only way a clan of force users could be; obliterated by brutal orbital bombardment; exterminated, because they refused to adhere to the principles of the light. The jedi claimed there could be no grey, only the light and dark and in that, they were correct. In the end, there would be only one; the dark side. His dark side. The jedi had already come for him once before, and doubtless they would come many times more.

But Darth Karr would not take vengeance upon them. Not yet. He would not throw himself at their sabers and die a swift death as they hoped, oh no. His, would be a much sweeter revenge. He would speak with these jedi, these so-called protectors of peace. Parlay. Confuse them. Baffle them. Bleed them of their very best and _then_ and only then, when the their order was in ashes and the universe loathed their very existence, would they have his permission to die. And these so-called sith that still dwelt ought there? He had plans for them, as well.

"Brooding again, lord Karr?"

Karr blinked his surprise, momentarily alarmed to feel a pair of pale arms coil around his waist, winding themselves around his chest. He suppressed a smile, as he felt her breath against his neck, her lips teasing at his ear. He did not need the power of the Force nor that of the dark side to know who it was that nestled against him. Asajj Ventress, former apprentice of Darth Tyrannus_-formerly known as Count Dooku_-nuzzled her head into his neck, her pale features contrasting sharply with that of his tan visage. She was as lovely as death itself, and twice as deadly.

"Ventress." he smiled. "I was unaware you'd returned." He turned in her arms, regardng the lithe woman with intent. "I trust the rebellion in Rice Country has been put down?"

Her dark lips twisted in a small smile as they sought his.

"I took great pleasure in it."

Karr gave himself to the kiss, savoring her tongue over hers. Kami, how he'd missed her.

"And the heads of the resistance?" he asked.

"Mounted on the main gate, my lord."

Naruto grinned. If there anyone who truly brought out the darkness within him, it was Ventress. The others merely stirred it in him, gaining faint glimpses of his power. But Ventress...he felt the twitch in his hand again as he looked over her, the thrill for battle coursing through his blood. He smiled.

"What say you to a spar, then?" Having finished dressing himself, he reached now for the twin handles of the sabers at his belt, welcoming their cold handles as he made for the door. Ventress's eyes all but glittered as she followed after him, favoring her own blades, as they descended to the training pad many levels below. _Let the ladies sleep awhile,_ she mused, favoring her master's strong shoulders through the thick cloak he wore, violet eyes trailing over his frame. _Today, he is mine._

"And after?" She purred.

"That depends." Karr restrained a smile. Kami, these women were insatiable!

"I would be delighted."

Karr laughed.

He'd taken great pleasure in wresting her away from the count, though the effort had nearly cost him his life. Dooku was not a man to trifle with lightly and though it was a coup stealing away his precious protoge, Karr knew he would one day have to face the wrath of Tyrannus-and through him his master-for the constant interference he wrought between the two sith. The thought of the two men and their machinations rankled Darth Karr to no end. There would be only one Dark Lord of the Sith! Not some pair of feeble old men with grandiose dreams they could not grasp!

He could not claim to have been pure until that day-her certainly wasn't now!-but what mistakes he did make were often made in ignorance back then, not of sinister intent. He did not delight in pleasure and passion as he did now; nay, back then he'd all but shunned them.

That day-that mission-had changed everything. Before that day, always he had suspected, secretly had he feared, that he wasn't like the others. He knew Kurenai wasn't like them either but in a cold, frigid way, always known to him on a fundamental level; always there, yet always different. Her abrupt approach that first day had stirred something deep within him; set something loose. Until that moment, he'd never thought much of women; sure, some were attractive, but he'd never thought of them like...well, like that. Kurenai had changed all of that. And for a time he'd been content with it. A friend, nothing more.

But when they reached the ruins...

...everything changed.

* * *

Time seemed to slow; a single sliver stretching into eternity. He watched as the lower wall crumbled, the massive column of stone finally giving into gravity and plummeting towards them. His body was already moving, flinging itself backwards even as he registered the danger, his sensitive hearing all that saved his live. Kurenai held no such advantage. To his infinite horror and dismay, the gennin looked on as the pillar crashed down upon the jounin, crushing her to a bloody pulp beneath its weight.

_No!_ He screamed, and it felt as if another were screaming with him. _Noooooooooo! _He never should've touched that wall, never should have walked around without checking for traps, never should have-

He blinked and the scene was gone. _A vison?_ Kurenai stood stock still, _still_ staring at the manuscript in her hands in rapt fascination. Narut swung around in mid-leap gawping at the pillar that had only just begun to fall like a leaning tower; mocking him as its foundation crumbled, toppling toward the raven-haired woman who was beginning to capture his heart. And Naruto was still flying backwards in rertreat, still being carried by the momentum from his first leap.

Naruto tried to cry out but he was moving slowly, much too slowly.

There was no way he could save her from here. Even _he_ wasn't that fast. Even if he ran toward her now he'd reach her just in time for her to become so much bloody paste upon the ground. Naruto recognized, processed, and reacted to this information in a fraction of a second. Time trickled forward and the moment was lost, the debris hurtling toward their heads. _No!_ His soul screamed, shrieking its fury as the pillar plummeted. _No no no! **NO!**_ He flung a hand forward, palm outward, fingers splayed, as if by the mere exertion of his will he could somehow save her; prevent her untimely end.

As fate would have it, something did. Naruto felt his anger envelop him and fly from his fingerstips, surging toward Kurenai like an invisible missile, a bullet of compacted force and energy. She seemed to sense some manner of something; because she looked right at him, ignoring the still falling stones, the chunks of rock screaming toward her head, unaware of its own impending end. And then the jounin was gone and across the courtyard; shoved_-pushed?-_as though an invisible hand had taken hold of them, throwing her bodies through the air like a pair of rag dolls. She hit the ground in a controlled roll and sprang to her feet, crouched tense in a defensive stance, and still, her eyes never left his.

Numbed, Naruto lowered his arm and the power left him, the rippling of the air the only indication that he'd done anything at all. But what did it matter? She was safe and _that_ was all that truly mattered. He heaved a sigh of relief, his shoulders sagging, drained from the effort. He'd blown apart a section of the wall with his exertions, and now he balked as he beheld was lurked behind the ruined rock. Hanging there before him like some kind of cosmic jewel. A cube.

He stared at it, rooted in place by the sight of it.

"Naruto!" Ino's voice pierced his reverie like a lance, drawing him back to the present. Her dumbfounded expression said it all; demanding an explanation for what he'd just done. Before he could give one, the ground gave way beneath the cube. Beneath him. There could be no other word for it, the broken tiles at his feet simply ceased to be, the earth splitting beneath him in a ragged oval.

The genin balked as his footing disappeared, leaving him hanging over the abyss. He flailed in surprise, his hands seeking a handhold, but there was nothing to grab. The last sight he had was of their horrified faces, of their hands, reaching out for him. And then he fell. He plummeted, plunging deep into darkness. He fell.

And thus_-literally and physically-_his fall began.

**A/N: Hmmm...seems there's more to Kurenai than meets the eye. Much more. Just what is she up to? And why is she so interested in Naruto?**

**Well...we see now how Naruto first discovered the holocron, but what oh what could've happened to him to turn him so devilishly dark? We'll soon find out. Some suggested I include Ventress in the harem, and after reading up on her, I think it an excellent idea. She's suffered just as Naruto has and although she broke easily that doesn't mean she can't be redeemed...or...corrupted even further. Mwahaha! Continue to send your votes and your opinions in! I revel in them! They're giving me all kinds of ideas! And be sure to stay tuned for the next chapter of Light and Shadow! That one's almost finished, and only has one or two chapters left in it at the most.**

**And of course...**

**...REVIEW! It is your destiny! And so is this preview!**

_"Alright, so I'm stuck in this blasted cavern with this creepy cube-YOW!"_

_He yelped as the device came to life in his hands, nearly drobbing the crimson cube to the floor. Fumbling fingers closed around it at the last second, preventing its destruction. He heaved a sigh of relief. Whatever this strange device was, it undoubtedly held the secret to unlocking that strange power he'd wielded earlier. A singular figure erupted from the cube, a great mountain of a man._

_"Welcome, apprentice." The man boomed, his tinny voice crashing like thunder against a hillock. "My name is Darth Bane."_

_And thus, his fall truly began._

**R&R! =D**


	3. Descent

**A/N: Alright, someone has suggested I change Naruto's darth name from Karr to Malestrom. Should I change it or leave it as it is? Suggestions anyone? Also, Sith holocrons are pyramid shaped, not cubed. My bad! And with that...**

**...I humbly present you with the next chapter.**

_"Killing someone...if they threaten me...I might just do that!"_

_~Uzumaki Naruto (soon-to-be Dark Lord of the Sith)._

**Descent**

Darth Bane.

Responsible for the destruction of Brotherhood of Darkness on Ruusaan. Creator of the rule of two. A great god of a man, the spectre of a thousand legends; whose name still invoked nightmares of dread to this very day.

Karr found it ironic that the one who contributed to his fall was the same man whose teachings he would later reject. One to embody the power, one to crave it? He scoffed at such a thing. Such a system was built upon betrayal; where he to have followed such a rule he'd have but a single apprentice and they'd doubtlessly have killed one another by now. No, Karr did not follow the rule of two. He followed the Rule of Many.

There would be only _one_ dark lord of the sith, a powerful pinnacle to which all others would strive, bettering one another, honing their skills. And when death finally took him, when he was ushered into that cold abyss and his chosen successor accepted the mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith...well, Karr didn't plan on dying for quite some time.

Karr briefly toyed with the idea of taking on another apprentice; already he taught six, and Aayla, was swiftly shaping up to become the seventh. The young twi'lek still had yet to fully release her emotions as the others had-her eyes had yet to take on the distinctive golden-hue of the true sith, but neither where they the milky saffron color of his own.

Were he to look at himself in the mirror now, he would marvel at himself. He was so different. So fierce. The sixteen year old boy he'd been after the shinobi wars was gone now; replaced by a frozen monolith who cared for little save himself. Amongst them, his wives, apprentices, and servants, but little else. The rest of the universe...well, they could go _burn_ for all he cared.

Darth Karr hazarded a glance at himself in the polished durasteel walls as he descended to the training ground below; indeed to see himself now, one would scarcely recognize him. His shaggy blond hair and thick whiskers remaiined from his days as a shinobi, as Uzumaki Naruto but precious little else could be associated with that name.

For one, there were the scars. They lined the length of his neck; the pale flesh a constant reminder of Sakura's _betrayal_ of how close she'd come to ending his life, after he'd slain Sasuke, at the climax of their epic battle. Until that day he'd never doubted her _never_ though she'd be so bold as to try and strike at him in his sleep.

Looking back, he'd been a fool to trust her. His reign had nearly ended that night; were not for the regenerative prowesses granted him by that of his tenant, all his work would have been undone. And all because of a foolish childhood crush. A sith did not make such mistakes his master said and thus Naruto took action; Sakura's missing _fingers_ would always serve as a constant reminder of her betrayal. He'd only taken the unimportant ones; he couldn't very well have her work suffering now could he?

And still, he stared into the mirror.

Saffron eyes blazed balefully back at him, yet another sign of all he had done. All he had accomplished. Since finding that old holocron, he'd slain countless shinobi, establishing his rule over the planet with an iron fist. He took on countless apprentices both from his world and others Ventress amongst them. He stole a glance at her, the nightsister at his elbow. She caught his gaze and held it for a mere moment, shying aside as he looked on.

Strange. It was not like her to shy away from his gaze.

He'd been the same, once. Shy and skittish, fearful of these strange new powes that were being made manifest in him.

...so long ago...

* * *

_(Flashback)_

The dull buzz of voices pulled Naruto out of the blackness. At first he heard the voices only as garbled nonsense, the rise and fall of pitch and timbre, not words. The stabs of pain in his ribs, head, and nose, sharpened as his mind began to clear. Who? What? When? Where? When?

He remembered what had happened, he forced his eyes open and looked on dim surroundings. Darkness. He had fallen. The sun overhead, cast only a slight glow through the debris, darkened by looming clouds. He tried focus through blurry vision, a feat easier said than done. His head throbbed with pain, blunting his concentration. Something was shining, glowing, just out of his reach. Something red. Crimson.

More words, something about pain, about understanding. A man's voice:

_"Touch the pyramid, apprentice."_

Blue eyes burst open.

He was on the floor, sprawled across the dirt, left to rot in the dust. In the darkness. So heavy. He wanted to move, needed to move. Now. Propping himself up on his elbows, the genin strangled a groan. He reached out into the darkness, his fingers searching, closing around that light; the strange pyramid from before. He pulled it closer to his face, its dim radiance his sole source of light in the darkness.

He marveled at it; how could something so small cause him so much trouble? He tried to stand, to rise, smacked his head on the low ceiling. Ouch! He winced, realizing he was in an outer passage. Pulling the pyramid close to his chest, he held it forth before him...odd, was it glowing brighter than before?

Steeling himself, he plunged into the darkness. The ground sloped beneath his feet, carrying him down, down down, deeper into the depths of the catacombs. It was as if he had awoken in the belly of a beast, each step bringing him closer to its old and dread

"Alright," his voice climbed as he spoke, as he descended, "So I'm stuck in this creeyp cavern with this creepy pyramid and-_**YOW!"**_

He yelped as the device came to life in his hands, nearly drobbing the crimson pyramid to the floor. Fumbling fingers closed around it at the llast second, preventing its destruction. Naruto heaved a heavy sigh of rellief. Whatever this strange device was, it undoubtedly held the secret to unlocking that strange power he'd wielded earlier.

He was about to continue on when the pyramid beeped. This time, Naruto failed to catch it, sending the device clattering to the floor, it triangular facets skittering down the slope and away from him as he struggled to catch up. He nearly tripped as the ground leveled out, his sandals striking the bare floor and even then he wasn't swift enough to prevent his face from carromming off a large metal door.

"

A singular figure erupted from the its facets, a great mountain of a man as large as he was tall. Wreathed in eerie blue light as he was, it took Naruto a few moments to realize this was not so much a ghost as it was a projection; broadcasting an old image of a man no longer amongst the living.

_"Welcome, young apprentice."_ Said man boomed, his tinny voice crashing like thunder against a hilllock. "_My name is Darth Bane. What do you wish to learn? The art of the blade? The way of the warrior? Or perhaps you seek knowledge of a darker sort?" _Taking Naruto's silence as an answer, he continued onward. _"__Some possess raw elemental power; they can unleash storms of lightning from their fingertips… Do you seek to lear how to wield such power?_"

Naruto balked at the hologram.

"Learn?"

A frown marred the man's heavy brow.

_"Surely you've called upon my knowledge for a reason?"_

"Well...actually...

_"My patience wears thin."_ he growled. _"Do you wish to learn or not?"_

"I-I do!" Naruto was always willing to learn new things but this would prove to be something else entirely; he simply had no idea of the darkness in which he was dabbling.

_"Then select a subject."_ Bane bit out. Naruto flinched; the man might not be present, but his _ire_ most certainly was. Unable to think, the blond made a small noise of acqueiscement, and selected the first thing, that came to mind. And as he made it, he felt something. Not so much as a stirring in himself, but beyond himself, an act whose consequences would be felt by the legions of this world and many others, countless times over.

**"Force Lightning."**

There was a silence.

_"You dabble in the dark arts, I see."_ Bane surmised with a small smile, his rage vanishing as though it had never been. _"Very well. I shall instruct you on the aspects of sith lightning; listen well and heed my words..._

Abruptly, Bane vanished. Only his voice remained, pursued by a wall of text, rising from the holocron itself:

_"A Jedi sufficiently strong in the Force can be trained to produce a facsimile, but not true Sith lightning, which, unabated, has the power not only to incapacitate or kill, but to physically transform the victim. Force lightning requires strength of a sort only a Sith can command because we accept consequence and reject compassion. To do so requires a thirst for power that is not easily satisfied. The Force tries to resist the callings of ravenous spirits; therefore it must be broken and made a beast of burden. It must be made to answer one's will. But the Force cannot be treated deferentially. In order to summon and use lightning properly, you will someday have to be on the receiving end of its power, as a means of taking the energy inside yourself._"

Naruto gawped. That...was a lot to take in.

"Can I learn them?"

_"The basics will be simple to learn if you have the desire, yes."_

"I like simple," Naruto replied lightly, sighing into the air. "It's my blanket of comfort in a world of insanity."

A tiny smile broke out on Bane's chiseled face, like a crack etching along a stone surface. Seemed the holocron had a sense of humor after all.

_"Then learn you shall." _he folded both arms behind his back, and drew himself to his full, towering height. _"First, I shall teach you the very essence of our order, that is to say, the Code of the Sith itself. Repeat after me, apprentice._

_Peace is a lie, there is only passion. __Through passion, I gain strength. __Through strength, I gain power. __Through power, I gain victory. __Through victory, my chains are broken. __The Force shall free me. Now, repeat!"_

Naruto felt a growing sense of trepidation swell within him as the Dark Lord began to instruct him. He also felt something he hadn't felt since he'd first met the Kyuubi. Fear. But Naruto was nothing if not stubborn. He'd mastered the Kage Bunshin, a jounin level technique in little to no time. Surely this couldn't be so hard...it might even help him become Hokage! But...was peace truly a lie? There would always be war, always conflict, he knew that now. Obito had been right in that aspect. But for peace to be called an outright lie...after all that had happened, even after Neji's death...

...perhaps it was, after all.

_Peace is a lie...huh._

And thus, his fall continued.

* * *

When the voices called for him some time later, he opened his eyes. How long had he been trapped down here? Alone, in the dark? Days? Weeks? Months? Certainly it hadn't been a year...or had it? No that wasn't possible. He couldn't have survived a year down here without food; he'd surely have perished by then.

The walls of the cavern were charred beyond recognition, as though a great flame had swept through the bowels of the room and devoured everything. In truth there had been no flame; but only Naruto, knew of that. The door remained wedged firmly shut barring him his passage. He know knew its runic features would not open for just anyone; only a true master of the way of the sith could hope to part these doors. But could he ever hope to become one? Naruto had his doubts. While he would try and fight were neccessary, he was not inherently cruel by nature.

He just couldn't see himself that way. Not yet.

"Naruto?" A voice called from above the slope. "Are you down there?" Naruto bristled. That was Kurenai's voice. He froze, his features twisted in surprise. _Can't let her see it!_ Already, he could hear her footsteps coming closer, the skittering of stone as she descended the slope. He had mere moments. Fumbling with the holocron, he shoved it into a storage scroll.

And not a moment too soon. Naruto looked up as light pieced the darkness, squinting against it. Seconds thereafter, he felt a hand upon his shoulder, felt slim arms pulling him into an embrace. Naruto froze, suddenly aware of her breasts pushing into his chest, of her breath, warm on his neck. He'd never been embrace by a woman-let alone one as beautiful as Kurenai-not a once.

"Looks like you found what you were looking for." She whispered in his ear. Naruto stiffened, rooted by her words. What? What did she mean? At the time, he didn'tknow...

What he _did_ know was thus; Bane had been right.

Peace was a lie.

* * *

_There is only passion._

Karr faced Ventress upon the private grounds of his training arena, more akin to a flat stretch of space that anything else, a spaciour area surrounded by four walls and a high ceiling. It was here that the former shinobi raised a single saber in salute towards his apprentice.

"Come." He beckoned.

Asajj flew at him like an arrow loosed from a bow, her twin lightsabers carving crimson swathes of destruction as they struck the floor, then the wall, then the ceiling, each time coming perilously close to his face, but never close enough. Naruto was a blur; a spectre, a ghost, never in one place for more than an instant, forcing Ventressto hound him back and forth across the arena. The game was an old one, and one master and student relished in.

They raged back and forth across the training grounds like the Sith lords of old, leaving naught but destruction in their wake, uncaring for anything else save one anothe. Ventress moved like a human hurricane, always striking always moving, seeking out his weaknesses and exploiting them whenever the opportunity arose.

And yet, today, her aggression lacked focus. She struck hard with both sabers, rocking him back on one heel, but there was little to no strength behind the blow. Karr frowned at her over the crimson line of his own blade.

Today, she was making great efforts to protect her abdomen, always shielding her stomach with a single saber whenever he came too close. Which was quite often. Her usual enthusiasm seemed to wither away as he pressed the attack, resolved that he might somehow discover whatever it was that maladied the pristine precision of her strikes.

Naruto blinked and fell into the force.

* * *

_(Vision)_

_"Again!"_

_Naruto-Karr!-barked out the words as he brought the long handle of his saber crashing down at the ground. He pressed the attack relentlessly his features grim as he forced his opponent, a boy of roughly ten years, backwards. The lad gave ground all too easily, his features indistinct in the Force, his crimson saber a frantic blur, as he struggled to break through the ward of the Dark Lord's feints and parries, but to no avail._

_A force push ended it, sending him sprawling out of the practice ring. He struggled to stand..._

_...and froze as the tip of a lightsaber found his neck._

_"Go see the healer." Naruto barked dismissively, shutting the weapon down."She'll tend your wounds."_

_"Y-Yessir."_

_Karr watched the lad retreat with a touch of regret and shook his head. He was a sith! He should be out conquering the galaxy, not training children! He really was getting too old for this.._

_Laughter tittered across their field of hearing, and he looked down to see a little waif of a girl standing at his feet. She was a youngling, couldn't have been more than seven years old, and yet he felt a warm smile blossom upon his features as he saw her; it was as if god had taken the best of him and Ventress and mixed them together in this beautiful little girl._

_"Well now, who doe we have here?"_

_Raven locks lofted around a heartshaped face; her pale skin-not so much pale as her mother's-contrasting flawlessly with her rustic style of clothing and crimson garb. A single training sabre dangled at her hip, her forehead still slicked with sweat from her morning routine. How did he know that?_

_"Daddy!" She chirruped happily reaching up for him with outstretched arms. Naruto reached down and snatched his daughter off the ground, swung her into his chest, his laughter fading into the distance, taking the world with it..._

* * *

Karr staggered, wincing as his Ventress's lightsaber sliced across his cheek, nearly taking his face off. Karr spat a curse and flung her backwards with the Force, a second saber roaring to life in his hand. Sweat slicked across his brow; his brief gleen of the future had cost him dearly. He glared at Ventress a moment longer, struggling to quell his fury. How dare she keep a secret like this from him? _How dare she?_

"Enough." he shut the blades down and clipped them back to his belt. "We're done for the day." His tone brooked no answer or arguement, but to his ire, his pale apprentice persisted.

"The jedi are here, master." She sheathed her blades as well, the bloodlust palpable in her eyes. "I will accompany you."

"No." Naruto's voice descended into a snarl, leaving all trace of emotion behind. "For now, they believe I'm the only threat. If they were to see you...

"I can hold my own." Ventress frowned, her expression thunderous.

"Of that I am certain." Karr immediately moved to close off _that_ avenue, knowing that it was a wasted effort where his proud apprentice was concerned. "However, I will not risk your safety on a whim_...nor that of my legacy."_

For the first time since her return, the nightsister's pale face drained of all color, only to brighten immediately thereafter. The slow flushing of her face was like a burning forest fire spreading to every inch of her body. Both hands flew to her stomach in a heartbeat, fingers reflexively curling around the still toned surface as though she could somehow protect the tiny life stirring within. As if she could somehow shield it from scrutiny

"When did you...

Karr smiled then, and it was a warm smile; a human smile, not that of a sith lord's. He took her hand in his and kissed it, his head traveling down her abdomen, pressing an ear against her stomach

"Just now." He paused, as though listening to the currents of life itself. "The force spoke to me. It will be...a girl, I think." He chortled softly, and it was a dangerous chuckle. "Do not keep such secrets from me, Ven. You know how I despise such...lies ya know?"

Despite herself and all the years she'd known him, Ventress flushed. She was not yet accustomed to this strange sith and his eq llyuastrange ways; though she had willingly turned against Count Dooku for him without a second thought. Sith, above all else, held power in high regard. And Lord Karr was stronger than the count.

The Force told her he would become stronger still. As would the small life growing within her stomach. At the thought of _that_ of her child, Ventress felt fiercely furious. No one would harm her child. Not a jedi, not a sith...no one. These feelings strange though they were, did not frighten her. They excited her.

"Karr."

The sith lord paused in midstride, curiously regarding her over his shoulder.

"To fall in love...is not something to be frowned upon." Ventress murmurred. "You told me that. It is...to be cherished. To be able to love each other, to hold a son or a daughter or both in ones hands, to raise a family. That isn't something that should be taken away." She paused staring at him, steely-eyed, awaiting his answer.

"Those were my words, yes."

Ventress's mouth worked wordlessly for the longest moment, struggling to form the words; words she'd never before spoken to anyone. Never had thought to speak, never dared to speak to anyone.

"Be safe." She managed at last, bowing. "My lord."

"Love ya too, Ven." Karr's voice slipped into his old dialect for a moment, his gaze holding hers. The sight of her face burning was the sweetest thing in the world and he reveled in it, basking in the glory of his newfound knowledge. He was going to be a father! Were any of the others pregnant? Were they too, keeping secrets from him? Karr silently resolved to seek the truth once he resolved these matters with the jedi.

Without another word he took the final step outside, and into the light.

* * *

There was more than one ambassador, he was pleased to realize. Both were female. The first, a young zabrakian, hung back behind the second, a Togrutan jedi, her rusty skin tone darkened, her grey lips pursed, whether from anger or embrassment, Karr knew not. They watched him intently as he descended the stairwell, and he, them.

Interesting, that they would send _these two_ to negotiate with him. Shaak Ti. The Togrutan jedi master was a fearsome foe and not one tackled lightly, even for a sith lord such as himself. Part of him relished the challenge. The other part...curious, would have been the best description.

And then there was the matter of her apprentice.

Naruto's gaze swung towards the female zabrak, taking her in at a glance. What he found there pleased him. Although she was pleasing to the eye, it was her turmoil of emotion raging within her breast that truly attracted him.

Emerald eyes burned back at him, jade fire licking at the edges of her irises as though she could slay him merely through the act of staring. Naruto bit back a grin. There was anger in this one. Hatred. Fury trapped just beneath the surface, biding its time, waiting for the moment to strike.

Interesting.

"I bid you welcome, master jedi." Karr inclined his head politely, suppressing any and all disdain he felt for the servants of the light. "Your prescence here honors me." Shaak Ti cocked her head aside, contemplating him. Even in his dark robe, he looked very little the part of a Sith Lord, just as he'd intended. Intimidation was but one of the many weapons wielded the like of the sith aresenal, but negotiations could not proceed when the other party ws too concerned with their own safety.

Those soft brown eyes softened, just a milimeter.

"I wish we could say the same, sith." she answered demurely.

"Come now, let us not use such labels." Karr waved her words away with an errant wave of his gloved hand, amused at their reactions; both women flinched, as though expecting him to lunge at them, in any instant. Did they think him a fool? He saw no reason to attack them outright; it would only bring more jedi down on his head. Instead he gathered himself, directing an earnest stare towards the confines of their ship.

"I understand you have something of mine?"

"And you have someone of ours." Shaak Ti countered.

Golden eyes twinkled softly, but whatever answer he might have given was caught up in a heartstopping hiss.

_"Cut the crap, sithspawn."_

Naruto's gaze swung back towards the female zabrak, bemused by her reaction.

"Whatever do you mean?"

"I mean, give us Aayla back, you bastard!"

"Maris," Shaak Ti warned, "Control your anger."

Naruto sighed.

"Her anger is understandable. Alas, Aayla does not wish to return at this time."

"Because _you_ turned her!" The padawan accused, spitting venom. "You corrupted her with your wicked ways and lured her away from the light just as you did to Barriss! You monster! You prey upon the weak!"

"I do not _prey."_ the sith scoffed. "I extend my hand to those of less fortune than myself and offer them a place at my side. If that is what you call "preying upon the weak" jedi, then I am most certainly guilty of that crime."

"Stop that!"

"Stop what?"

"I said stop!

"Maris!"

"He's _lying, _master!" She argued, biting her lower lip. "He has to be!"

"No, my young padawan." Karr cut her off, his words a low growl. "That is where you are wrong. They did not come to me seeking to silence the sith as your kind always have. They came to me seeking answers to their questions. They wanted to know who I was. What I was. They were full of questions. So many questions, so unlike your kind. But they could not hope to understand the scope of my vision."

"No...no...

"And when they failed to understand they too, tried to strike me down. I could have killed them, for that. Instead, I showed them mercy and gave them a place at my side, a chance to experience something your kind shuns, like the plague. Emotion. Passion. _Power._ Euphoria in the simplest of terms. What you fail to understand is thus; I am like no sith lord you've ever seen. Strike me down if you've seen otherwise!"

_**"NO!"** _Maris's shriek split the sky, accompanied by a force push so violent it ripped the earth itself. Karr nudged it aside as thought it were naught but an errant breeze, ruffling his hair.

"It is not in my nature to return those who do not wish to be returned."

"You lie!" Trembling, she reached for her hilt. "Sithspit! You taint the air with your very tongue!"

"Maris," Shaak Ti's voice climbed higher still. "Do not do this."

"I'm sorry master but I _have_ to do this! We can't let the sith exist! Not when one's standing right in front of us!"

Maris's lightsaber ignited with an eclectic _snap-hiss, a rumble of thunder tearing through the silence_ as she raised the blade and held it between them; a green line she would not allow the Sith Lord to cross.

"You turn your weapon on me?" Karr frowned, grasping the long handle of his own lightsaber and activating the blade. "You are but a child, fumbling in matters you cannot hope to comprehend. Allow me, to educate you." It sprang forth like a genie from the bottle, a bolt of brilliant red-white, accompanied by a flash of radiant thunder.

The sword sang in his hand, not a mere tool, but an extension of his self.

"Maris!" Shaak Ti's voice had lost all hint of reproach; she now spoke with the full weight and authority of a jedi master. "You will stand down this instant!" Her padawan blanched briefly, cowed by the Force behind her words and for a moment the fate of the duel lay in jepoardy.

Karr made a sound of supreme annoyance, much to the surprise of all others present.

"Come now master jedi, do you honestly think I intend to kill your student before your very eyes?" He shook his head, slowly making his intentions clear. "I merely intend to teach her a lesson; to prove I am not the sith you seek. And if she falls...well then she falls." Lightning liicked across his fingertips. "My apologies, but I'll be removing you from out little dance now." With a thunderous crackle the bolts flew forward.

Shaak Ti dodged too late and the energy struck her, put a cold spike in her heart, and threw her against the far wall. Despite the agony, she managed to use the Force to cushion her impact and fell to the floor, her breathing ragged as the last of their sparks crawled over her and expired. She did not rise.

"Master!" Maris screamed.

"What will you do now, young padawan?" Karr mocked. "If you do not defeat me your master will never receive the medical treatment she so sorely needs. She might even die."

The zabrak hissed at him.

"You...

Karr moved the blade back and forth as he sized up his opponent, contemplating the fiery padawan's stance as she held her ground against him. Aha, he mused, so she favored the defensive form three, _Soresu._ His teachers had easily demonstrated the weaknesses of that form and he knew them all too well.

Karr lowered his single saber in a salute, the blade raised toward the native sky of Ninjato. He smiled.

"Time is ticking, padawan."

Brood balked at his unorthodox style a moment longer, then she leapt forward, shrieking her fury. She swooped at Karr, her face a rictus of rage as the Sith Lord languidly lowered his blade to block.

"Die!"

Maris's blade spat a blurry shower of sparks as she unleashed a series of powerful blows, her anger and aggravation lending strength to each strike. Naruto allowed the strength of the attacks to move him backwards as he dodged left, right, leapt, spun, and parried, biding his time.

At last he deflected an overhand strike in a shower of energy, slid his blade free, and stabbed at Maris's middle. To her credit and his own amusement, the padawan slid left, spun, and drove Karr's blade to the earth with another overhand strike. Maris threw a reverse elbow with her off arm, augmented with the strength of the force, but Karr anticipated the blow, parried with his forearm, lurched his blade free, and drove a force-augmented kick into Maris's midsection.

_"Ooooofff!"_

The impact lifted Maris from her feet and drove her fifteen paces back across the pad, though she flipped in flight and landed on her feet in a crouch, clutching at her stomach.

"I find your lack of faith disturbing, padawan." Karr said, advancing on her as she struggled to catch her breath. "Were you a student of mine, you would not be so weak."

"Shut up!"

Maris's shrieked and launched herself at him in a forward somersault, her saber screaming for his head.

Karr scoffed and slapped the padawan's lightsaber aside with almost contemptuous ease; a force push sent her stumbling to the right and past him. She wheeled and he nudged her aside yet again, as though she were a bull and he, the matador. Her eyes blazed at him with each failed pass; he was toying with her! Her skin darkened, flush with fury.

"Yes, that is!" he goaded. "Use your anger!"

_Enough!_

Karr blinked as Shaak Ti's lightsaber abruptly twitched on the ground beside him. This was the only warning he received, and then the blade flew across the landing field and slapped in the awaiting palm Maris Brood. There came a deafening snap-hiss, a bolt of brilliant blue-white blazing beside her green. Maris heaved a deep breath and welcomed the calm, immersing herself within the Force once more.

_There is no emotion. There is peace..._

"Impressive." Karr noted. "But words won't save you."

The sith fell into the force as well as she came towards him, let its energy course through his body, enhance his reflexes, his strength, his endurance. He drew upon the memories of his pain and suffering, let his anger and hatred for the jedi give him the power needed to prevail.

Karr answered Maris's stare with one of his own, his eyes black holes, and lightning sizzled on his fingertips, tracing a spiral path up the red blade of his lightsaber.

"We end this." he said.

Sith and Jedi strode across the landing zone toward each other, lethal purpose in both of their minds. Karr found it refreshing to fight again; though he did not relish the idea of killing such a promising student.

They collided like a hurricane; jedi and sith did, a typhoon of sapphire and scarlet and emerald green. Once more Karr was in favour of defense, allowing himself to be driven ever backwards as the padawan slashed and sliced and stabbed with her

"Maris...

Karr drew himself up to his full height and struck like a viper. Maris had less than an instant to recognize the sudden change in his stance, the anger in his eyes, and then her master's blade was gone, swatted from her hand like an errant baubble. It pirouted in the air a moment longer, dangling overhead.

Karr raised his fist and crushed it in a Force Grip, reducing the venerable master's sabre to scrap, raining metallic dust down on her head. It all happened too quickly for Maris to react; she felt her calm disintegrate with the destruction of her master's lightsaber.

Karr, sensing the hesitation, bounded forward, lightsaber raised in a killing stroke. Maris parried, but too slowly. Karr's blade severed Maris's left arm at the elbow, slicing through flesh and bone like a hot knife through butter.

Blinding pain exploded in Maris's mind; a scream broke through the wall of her gritted teeth. She felt herself fall, but as if from a distance. The world seemed to slow. Her senses felt attenuated, all except for the acute, throbbing agony of her arm. Her heart kept in time with the pulse of her doom, and each beat sent a knife of pain up her bicep.

Karr loomed over her, his lightsaber sizzling, his confidence the embodiment of Maris's failure.

Anger tensed Maris's body, her cheeks darkening from pale ash, to a grand crimson color. Blue force lightning gathered upon her fingertips, crackled a dire promise. Karr redoubled his pace; he had not expected the padawan to fall so easily and in the presence of her master no less. Before he could reach her, Maris gestured and the energy cut a jagged path across the pad towards him.

Instead of leaping back to avoid the deadly attack, Naruto extinguished his saber and stepped forward to greet it.

Both hands were held in front of him, his arms fully extended at shoulder height, his thumbs touching and his fingers splayed wide. He drew the bolts of lightning into his waiting grasp, channeling them away from their intended target and absorbing their power

"Allow me to show you, padawan." he said to the disbelieving zabrakian,"The true power of the dark side."

Maris's eyes went wide as Naruto unleashed the power of her own attack against her. She tried to throw up a Force shield, but the bolts ripped it apart and continued unabated. The lightning engulfed her, the intense heat depriving her of her new defense, stripping her of his strength and forcing her to the floor.

She lay there, gasping, groaning as the lightning scrawled across her flesh, leaving her helpless before the Sith lords brutal advance.

"You have chosen the lonely path." Naruto sighed. "The jedi teach denial of self. That is their weakness._ Your_ weakness. No sentient can long abide that. The Sith embrace the self, whereas _I_ embrace others, and therein lies my strength."

"You preach much but you understand so little," Maris said, her words hoarse with pain. "The jedi teach the interdependence of life! The understanding at all is connected to the greater good!"

A flash of anger animated Karr's eyes, and he spit at Maris's feet.

"Now it is _you_ who lie, padawan. Did your precious order think of the "greater good" when they exterminated my clan nearly a century ago? Where were their morals then?"

Maris gasped but Karr bored deeper.

"When is the last time you felt anything with passion? When is the last time you laughed, Maris? Felt the touch of a lover, of a loved one? When?" The words cut close to the bone, echoing as they did, Maris's own doubts.

Karr must have seen it in her expression; because he sheathed his blade and offered her his hand.

_"Join me."_

"What?" his offer had come too suddenly for her to contemplate refusal. He'd lowered his defenses! Every fiber of her being knew that this was the time to act, to strike him down and yet...a thorn of doubt pricked her and held her back. A jedi must not strike down an unarmed opponent.

"I am asking you to join me, padawan." the sith lord repeated, his words soft as silk, smooth as satin. "You have potential. I am willing to take you under my wing and help you unlock it. You will be able to see Barriss and Aayla again, and in time you will come to understand why they have joined me."

Maris's mouth worked wordlessly.

"Would you rather I threaten you?" Karr turned toward Shaak Ti; the torgrutan's chest still rose and fell with breath, but that could easily be ended with a single stroke of his lightsaber. He would do it, she realized. He would strike her down without so much as a second thought, not even a backward glance would be spared for her corpse.

A snake of dread coiled in the depths of Brood's gut; a snake of losing everything she had ever known.

"No!" She shouted, gaining the sith lord's attention. Then, more softly: "No. Please, don't kill her."

"Your answer, then?" Those golden orbs blazed down at her. "Will you serve me, apprentice?"

Maris inclined her head, hating the bitterness she felt, the tang of it on her tongue. _Forgive me, master._ She prayed that her venerable teacher would understand why she had done this when she woke.

"As you wish...my master."

Karr's face brightened, the storm leaving his eyes

"Good girl." He snapped his fingers and all at once, Maris found herself surrounded by servants. Wait. That wasn't quite right she realized; these men and women wore long, flowing robes, their upper visage each hidden by half-helms, exposing only a grim line for their mouths and chins. These were not household servants.

They were soldiers. Well armed soldiers, as evidence by the vibroblades at their hips and the repeating blasters slung across their backs. And was that mandalorian armour they were wearing?

"See to it that she receives a bacta treatment at once and have that reattached," the sith lord instructed, gesticulating at the severed stump of Brood's old arm. "Padawan Maris Brood and her master Shaak Ti are to be treated as my honoured guests until I say otherwise. I will not tolerate any harm to their person."

"Troublesome." one of them muttered, displeasure trickling through his vocoder.

"What was that, Shikamaru?" Karr growled.

"Erm...nothing!"

Maris might have giggled, were she not so terrified. And she had only the word of a sith lord to cling to. A sith! And allof this had come about because of her; because she'd insisted on picking a fight with saidsith. Honestly, she didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Instead, she clutched the stump of her arm and allowed herself to be led away.

She risked a glance over her shoulder as the guards ushered her into the compound. The sith lord had yet to move from this landing; his gaze remained fixated upon her, boring into her, assesing her.

Maris shivered as the doors slid shut behind them, finally putting something between her and his implacable gaze. The Dark Side was strong here, and yet...there was a distinct lack of malice in the air. Somewhere on the upper tier, laughter trickled down to her. The padawan clutched at the the stump of her arm once more, feeling naked without her lightsaber.

_Why do I feel as though I've just made a deal with the devil?_

* * *

Karr watched them go, clucked his tongue, and turned towards the still form of Shaak Ti. The jedi master would live whether he interfered or not, but it was best not to take any chances Reaching down for her, he noted her thready pulse, no dobut he knew she would not look back fondly on this day. Even now he could sense his prize deep within the bowels of their ship and knew what was waiting for him. A slow, sinister smile pulled at his lips.

Negotiations had officially broken down. Again. Next time they wouldn't be sending a master and her padawan; no, after this he'd probably warranted a visit from the Jedi Council themselves. That would prove...interesting. For all they knew, he was a simple, single sith, albeit a strong one. They knew nothing of his apprentices and wives; nothing, of the family he was raising here in solitude.

"It seems your padawan has yet to master the nuance of diplomacy, Shaak Ti." Karr mused as he slung her slumbering form over his shoulder."But I am nothing if not a man of my word." He chuckled softly as he departed the landing pad. The council was truly foolish. For all he knew they'd send Master Kenobi next time, perhaps even Skywalker. It mattered not. Sooner...or later they were bound to learn...

...one simply did not send women to a sith lord's compound.

**A/N: Hmmm...seems there's more to Kurenai than meets the eye. Much more. Just what is she up to? And why is she so interested in Naruto? And I'm just going to say this in advance, I do not so much think Hinata will be in this harem. I've included her in far too many, and I just don't see her gentl personality meshing with Naruto's increasing violence in coming chapters.**

**Maris Brood is now a reluctant member of the harem, per request! If anyone has ever played Force Unleashed then you should be familiar with her character, and her own struggles. AND VENTRESS IS PREGGERS?! DAAW!**

**Well...we see now how Naruto first discovered the holocron, but what oh what could've happened to him to turn him so devilishly dark? We'll see a hint of it in the next chapter. He is a reluctant sith, trying to find his way and understand his past, his clan and his power. And just where does Kurenai fit into all this? She's hiding sumthing but we'll have to wait and see what that something is... **

**Continue to send your votes and your opinions in! I enjoy them! They're giving me all kinds of ideas! And be sure to stay tuned for the next chapter of Light and Shadow! That one's almost finished, and only has one or two chapters left in it at the most. I plan to continue this story and Dark Side of the Moon in tandem. I want to at least finish these two before taking on another. So...hope ya enjoyed!**

**And of course...**

**...REVIEW! It is your destiny! **

**R&R! =D**


	4. Countdown

**A/N: Very well! Naruto's sith nameshall remain Darth Karr! And to all those fans who still want Hinata to be in the harem, the decision is not yet final. I've included her in a ton of fics already and although she COULD mesh with Karr, given the proper circumstances, do you really truly want that? And where oh where is Kurenai? Well for that you will have to see.**

** And with that...**

**...I humbly present you with the next chapter. AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL! I've decided to include a teensy bit of christmas spirit in this chapter, given the festivities...**

_"__Strength that is never touched by ruthlessness is touchingly irresponsible._"

_~Darth Vectivus._

**Countdown**

_"Happy Holidays, master jedi."_

All eyes swung toward the center of the council chamber in stunned disbelief; alarmed to find the likeness of Darth Karr, self appointed Dark Lord of the Sith standing before them. Where in the name of the Force had he come from?! None had sensed so much as a disturbance in the force; had the sith masked his prescence so easily?

Mere moments before they'd been discussing what to do about him; this secretive sith who'd effortlessly eradicated the third jedi strike team sent against him just last year. Though he was undeniably strong in the force his origins remained a mystery and the source of his power mystified all; rumor had it, he'd once crushed a republic cruiser hanging in orbit above his planet with his will alone, thus sparking the fear of another galactic war.

If this were true, if this sinister sith could truly reduce a republic cruiser to scrap metal with an errant thought, then he might be strong enough to face master Yoda himself.

As such, the Dark Lord's abrupt arrival was not taken very lightly.

Several councilors reached for their lightsabers purely on instinct before they realized their folly; were it not for the blue-tinged appearance of the hologram they would've attempted to strike him down outright. As it was there was nothing for them to strike but empty air.

Karr held their attention in silence, saffron orbs sweeping over each master in turn, his form emanating from a single circular disk in the center of the room, likely left behind by one cleaning droid. How on earth he'd managed to accomplish such a feat without leaving the planet only bespoke of his contacts. If this man could somehow smuggle a minature holprojector into the temple, what else could he do?

Darth Karr had discarded his mandalorian-esque armor, favoring instead the dark, loose cloak and boots most sith seemed to favor. Golden eyes blazed out at them from within the shadows of his cowl, his grin a brilliant streak of white set against the black of his hood.

_"I see my prescence has caused quite a stir." _he noted aloud. Gloved fingers peeled back the hem of his hood, exposing his chiseled face in full view of the Jedi Council. If he reveled in their looks of surprise and shock he did little to show it. Rather, he maintained his silence, waiting for the jedi delegation to do the same.

"Are you quite done pissing your pants like a Kel Dor?" he drawled. "Because if so, I'd like to wish you all a happy holidays."

Plo Koon inclined his head in accordance. The Kel Dor mantained his silence, however, in the wake of the sith lord's unkindly insult to his race.

"Called just to tell us all this, have you?" Yoda asked.

_"Not quite."_ Kaar grinned. _"Although, if you think I'll be getting coal again this year, you've got another thing coming. See, I decided to hell with the jolly old man; if he won't give me what I want...well I'll just take it. Speaking of taking, I see that a certain zabrak is in attendance today. Is that you over there, master Kolar?"_

Agen Kolar absently touched a hand to his horned head, favoring one of the stumps left behind by the recently crowned dark lord. The zabrakian disliked dealing in politics as it was; he'd much rather finish off this troublesome whelp and be done with the dishonour he'd suffered in battle. The boy had caught him off guard last time, that was all! How was he to know that the terrifying sith could transform into such...such an exasperating form?!

"It could be worse," Kit Fisto snickered.

Kolar shot Kit a witherring look for a moment, a look which the latter didn't even seem to shrug off, "How could this possibly be any worse?" Blunt as ever, he saw no point in dancing around this topic, especially if it saved him a reaming from master Yoda. "Where is Shaak Ti? Her beacon informed us she touched down on your world, but she has yet to leave."

_"Quite right."_ Karr permitted himself a small smile. _"She did land on my planet, but she is...unavailable at the moment." _The words, though genteel, set off a chain of events that even the Dark Lord himself, with his powers of foresight, could not have predicted; nor this vision his words would produce and inflict upon the venerable masters of the order.

The Jedi Council erupted into chaos.

Master Windu flinched as though he'd been struck, his visage contorting in a rictus of pained confusion, as the Force revealed to them the provocation of Maris Brood, coupled by Shaak Ti's incapacitation and her padawan's valiant battle an subsuquent fall from the light at the hands of the sith.

_'Not again..._

In the same instant Ki-Adi-Mundi lurched to his feet, the accomplished warrior, nearly stumbling into a stunned Kit Fisto. An irate Agen Kolar had the wherewithal to keep his seat although he too spat a curse in his native tongue. Karr briefly allowed himself to revel in the chaos he'd inadvertantly caused; it was petty things like this; the pained reactions of old men, too set in their ways, that reminded him of his true place in the grand scheme of things. This was what happened when they sought to control the young; to hold sway over them and their evey action, to dictate their very way of life.

_Rebellion._

Amidst the chaos only master Yoda stood strong; the closing of his heavy lids the only indication that the diminutive jedi had felt any sorrow at all for the fall of Shaak Ti's padawan. Karr begrudgingly acknowledged that it would take more_-much more-_than an errant force vision to rattle the grand master.

"Regrettable, her actions are." He breathed. "But falter, we cannot." As if by a calming wind, his words restored order to this chaos, breathing peace and serenity back into the room. Master Windu, was amongst first of the masters to recover, his dark features settling back into the mask of apathy for which he was so well known. A muscle jumped in his jaw, the only indicate of his anger.

Ki-Adi-Mundi composed himself with supreme effort, returning to his seat alongside Kit Fisto. Both looked abashed. Karr was the sole silent party in the room, his smile not-quite reaching those eerie golden eyes.

"Why tell us this?" Mace Windu demanded. The sith simply sighed.

_"Secrets are dangerous."_ he quoted, his words soft, bordering upon the precipiece of nostalgia. _"Secrets are difficult. Secrets can kill."_

"Beg your pardon?"

_"Just an old quote from my master."_ the darth returned. "I_ thought it best to be honest, rather than beat around the bush as you jedi are wont to do. So yes, I have them. Both of them. I will not harm them further unless given adequate cause. So by all means, send another strike team. I'll have their gift-wrapped bodies back to you by Christmas Eve."_

"What do you plan to do with them?" Ki-Adi-Mundi demanded, the mountain of his forehead creasing, as he struggled to feel the calm once more; to contemplate the true intention of the sith. They could not allow a master to fall to the _dark side_ they simply could not! It would be a blow to the order!

As if sensing his intent, Karr chortled softly, golden eyes dancing with glee.

_"Do?"_ The sith lord scoffed. "_I shall do nothing with them, jedi. If Shaak Ti and Marris Brood wish to accept my humble offer of hospitality for the holidays, then who am I to refuse them?"_

The cerean jedi scowled, but did not press matters further. Christmas be damned, but this sith was annoying!

Kit Fisto, Nautolan though he was, frowned. His thoughts were with the two jedi, but ultimately, his heart was with another, one of far greater importance to him.

"And Aayla?"

Here, the dark lord did frown. Though he stood leagues distant from them, they could feel his anger; sense his ire stretching across the galaxy itself. Had he been standing before them in the flesh, a confrontation would've ensued. As it were, he gave a hearstopping hiss, stunning them into silence.

_"She is no longer any concern of yours, jedi."_ His words dripped with derision. "I_ have been tolerant of your inquiries thus far but believe me when I say I shall tolerate them no longer. Aayla has made her decision. And if you do not believe me, well, I shall be more direct, then."_ He made way for another-

-and Aayla Secura stepped in.

"Aayla?!"

"Good to see you, it is." Yoda inclined his head.

_"And you as well, grand master."_ Aayla managed a wan smile. _"Kit, you're looking well."_

"I wish I could say the same of you, little one."

_"Those who have power, should restrain themselves from using it."_ the twi'lek said softly. _"Weren't those your words, Kit?"_ A silent pallor descended over the council. "_Nar-erm...Karr, isn't using his power the way you think he is. He's not the Sith you think he is. He's just a man. A good man, flawed, just like the rest of us." her _voice felll, dropping to the softest of sighs, the weakest of whispers._ "Perhaps more than you'll ever know."_

"Aayla, please, think about what you're doing!" Mace argued. "You're being seduced by the dark side!"

_"I'm sorry masters but I'm happy here." _the smallest of smiles wreathed the woman's pale lips_. "I know you think I've turned away from the light, but I haven't." _She turned toward her sith master and accepted his hand, fingers fitting flawlessly within his own, cerulean skin mingling with the dark lord's fierce features._ "I'm at peace. For the first time in the longest time, I truly, truly am."_

She stepped away, but not before giving the sith lord a chaste kiss upon the lips. Karr pulled her closer and the twi'lek folded into the kiss, her lekku curling with pleasure. Reluctantly he released her and allowed her to retreat beyond the holo eyes but gleaming with satisfaction.

_"Satisfied?"_

"Hardly." Mace frowned.

"_Hardly?" _Now it was Karr's turn to scoff, his safforn eyes narrowing into sibilant slits._ "You speak as if you are above me, my dear jedi. And yet ye kill the innocent. Betray your friends. Destroy the very ones to whom you claim allegiance. Animals you are, the lot of you. You seek to pin the mantle of murderer upon me when **your** hands are thrice-stained with countless lives yourselves! Clan-killers!" _He all but spat the word, golden eyes enflamed with anger._ "Send another ambassador and I might consider sparing you and your kriffin' ilk live to see the next christmas!"_

_"Karr out!" _

A soft click terminated the transmission. There was a silence.

Saesee Tiin, an Ikotochi Jedi master more accustomed to the field of battle than peace, bit back a smile of his own. Darth or not that was quite the stick the lad had used lad to tell them to bugger off with. Such a shame he was a sith. He would have made one hell of a jedi...

"Well, that went better than expected." Plo Koon mused.

"How so?" Mace couldn't quite keep the strain from his words. They'd only succeeded in riling the man. And yet Plo Koon was not nearly as distressed as they'd thought him to be. The Kel Door shifted comfortably in his seat beneath the weight of their combined gaze, folded both hands in his lap, turning goggled eyes to address his fellow jedi.

"We already know he possesses the technology to leave the planet at will, correct? "And yet he does not." he paused for the effect, a second of silence passing between his fellow masters as they absorbed this knowledge. "His fleet, stands at several thousand heavily armed dreadnoughts with at least a dozen lesser craft and fighter squadrons and it grows by the day. More than we can hope to bring to bear at the moment.

"In standing his ground and calling for continued talks, he shows that, despite the animosity we have garnered to him, he is still willing to seak a peaceful solution in light of the holidays. Does that make him a sith, I wonder?"

"He makes a powerful point." Tiin argued. "He has not attempted to leave his home system...

"Problematic, this is." Grand Master Yoda frowned. "Taken, action must be."

There was a silence. Everyone knew of Karr's crimes, and yet the Supreme Chancellor refused to authorize a fourth and final strke agains thim after watching his fleet be oblitered in orbit by that planetary defense cannon. And thus, Karr's reign would continued to flourish, unchecked.

What's more, he'd managed to seduce an alarming number of jedi away from the order and to to his cause; turning powerful knights and promising padawans to the dark side with an ease as effortless as it was disturbing. And yet in spite of this, he'd

Karr would send the first strike team back in pieces within a standard galactic week. The second team mysteriously vanished before setting foot on the planet, and the third, suffered the same fate as the first.

All save one.

His first victim had been padawan Bariss Offee, student to Luminara Unduli. With the sole excepition of the Mirialan padawan and her master, all others were shipped back to the council in body bags, lacking their lightsabers. Master Unduli would soon prove to be the sole survivor_-or so they'd thought at the time-_of that terrible massacre, her mind, strippped of all knowledge of the incident by an unknown means. It was as if Karr had broken something within her, made her unable to remember.

Shaak Ti had volunteered to spearhead negotiaitions with the Sith herself, so as to secure the safe release of padawan Bariss Offee and knight Aaylla Secura, amongst others. And now Shaak Ti was missing, nearly a month having passed since her last transmission.

"I will go," Mace began, but a three-fingered hand silenced him.

"Go this planet, _I_ must." Yoda announced, his voice cutting through the tension like a knife. "Speak with this 'sith lord', I will, ascertain his intentions." All heads turned toward the Grand Master, unable to believe what it was they were hearing.

"Already high tensions are, with the Separtists." the diminutive master pointed out. "Risk war breaking out, we cannot. After all likely it is, that the sith we seek, he is not."

"But Master Yoda-

"Secret, shall I tell you?" The ancient jedi smiled. "Grand Master of Jedi Order am I. Won this job in a raffle I did, think you? 'How did you know, how did you know, Master Yoda?' Master Yoda knows these things. His _job_ it is."

"But he may attempt to turn you as well!"

Yoda smiled.

"Not if anything to say about it I have."

"Aren't we being a bit overcautious here?" Kit piped up abruptly, rising from his seat. The earlier emotion that had wreathed his pale features was gone, replaced by an icy, steely calm. "Grand Master, while I've no doubt of your ability, shouldn't you consider an alternative suggestion?"

Yoda blinked, his wrinkled face, pinched in confusion.

"More to say, have you, master Fisto?"

"I do."

"Then hear you, we will."

"Why not send Kenobi?" the Natuolan suggested. "While not nearly as gifted as Shaak Ti, if its negoatioan we want, I'm more than certain he's up to the task.

"Possible this is," Yoda said. "Just returned from Ansion, they have. Believe this do you, hmmm?"

"Without a doubt."

Several of the remaining councilors inclined their heads in acknowledgement.

"Agreed we are, then." Yoda declared, the smallest of frowns touching his face. "Send Master Kenobi and his padawan to the planet, we will. Inform the senate of this development...we will not."

Another silence passed, heavier than the last. This was a bold move they were making. A dangerous move. Should Palpatine learn, should the republic learn of this action, there would be...repercussions.

Mace steepled his fingers and bowed his head. Somehow, he did not share in the others confidence. He'd seen the passion in those cold yellow eyes; the willingness to cut down an enemy, no matter whom, they might be. He feared that with this vote, they'd just condemned Kenobi and Skywalker to death...or worse.

"May the force be with us all."

* * *

In other parts of the galaxy, other plans were being made to "deal with" this renegade sith lord. Plans that had nothing to do with peace, but rather, war. Plans that had been in motion for many years and only now come to fruition. Count Dooku stood before a holoprojector, confronting the cowled face of his lord and master, Darth Sidious.

"What is they bidding my master?"

"How goes the operation?" The Darth Lord hissed. "Have you made the preparations?"

"We will be ready in a matter of months." Tryannus bowed. "Which gives us more than enough time do dispense with our so-called "sith" lord on Ninjato. I promise, I will not faill you a second time-

"There will be no next time, Lord Tyrannus." Sidious rasped out, cutting the count off.

_"What?"_ Dooku could scarcely believe his ears! The boy was a threat to everything they stood for! To their grand plan for war and the ascension of the Sith! How could they leave him be?!

"Master...I'm afraid I do not understand."

"Lord Karr and I have a...preexisting arrangement." Sidious's smile was so slight most beings_-most Jedi-_might've missed it, but not the count. He was _not_ most jedi. "He has promised not to interfere in our plans so long as he and his planet are left untouched." A muscle jumped in Dooku's jaw but he carefully controlled it as his master continued, "Listen well Tyrannus, I will not tolerate any insubordination in this matter. You are to leave the boy alone."

There was a silence.

"It shall be done, my master."

"See that it is, lord Tyrannus." Darth Sidious barked out, his form fading seconds thereafter, leaving the count in silence. The mood was tense; thick enough to be slit with a knife. All his calm, every once of his control had been stripped away.

Tyrannus glowered at the wall. This was one order, he had no intention of obeying; Karr had already made a fool of him back on Kamino, already wrested his best assassin away from him before the war could even begin, and he was supposed to leave him be? To let him flourish, with the small army he'd already created? No, Dooku would not do this. But he himself would not be leaving the planet; rather, his most recent acquisition would do the deed.

"Will you do this?" Dooku directed the question at a pale woman, her crimson hair tied back in a topknot. Her name, was one that sent chills down every spine, especially those of the jedi.

"A chance to kill this many jedi, _and_ a sith lord?" Aurra Sing smiled; all pearly whites and all venom. "I'd take the job even if you weren't paying me!" Her laughter was like the peal of a hundred bells; Dooku liked to think they extolled the end of Karr and his little harem. And yet, it their heavenly chorus was soured by Sing's assumption.

But to associate this...this _whelp_ with the sith? Never! The boy was playing with forces beyond his control and he would soon pay the price for it. That was all. It mattered not that he'd stolen away his best assassin in Ventress, nor that he refused any and all attempts for a rematch; it was simply a matter of pride. Dooku could not beget this; could not allow this boy to ruin a plan centuries in the making.

"So, this sith kid...you want him dead or alive?" Aura asked, her words dragging the count from his reverie. Dooku bristled a bit at the misassociation; the boy was not sith!

"He is _not_ sith." he cautioned, advising the huntress. "All the same, you must be cautious. His voice is his greatest weapon of all; he will try to sway you to his side, as he has others.

"Sure sure, whatever you say." Sing waved his words away with the flick of a wrist. "Let's see him try and talk his way out of _my_ sights."

"I have every confidence in you." Dooku feigned a smile. "Karr throws a gala every year around this time, celebrating this old Christmas tradition of his. You will infiltrate his fortress disguised as a guest. And when he is alone...

Sing raised her hands as if to ward off the words.

...hey, no need to tell me twice." The huntress made a crossing motion across her neck. "He'll be dead as a doorknob before Christmas Eve.

* * *

_(Still further away)_

Darth Sidious, also known as Supreme Chancellor Palplatine, could scarcely contain his amusement as he sank back into his pleated chair and looked out across the Coruscanti skyline. He knew full well that his apprentice would not leave Karr alone; Tyrannus would doubtlessly attempt some elaborate scheme to eradicate the sith without his master's knowing. Unfortunate but exepected; because Sidious, knew all. He'd worked very hard to cultivate this particular asset; from the moment the boy first laid hands upon the holocron, he knew him.

As his powers grew and spanned the cosmos, as countless beings sensed his power and were drawn to him so too, did Darth Sidious find himself drawn to the boy. At first he'd thought to kill him, but no, the Force had a plan for him, a plan which, he knew, lay deeply intertwined with the Dark Side.

Discovering that force talented-woman with him, now that had been a stroke of luck. So long as the boy cared for others, he had a lever to use against him, Sidious did. If he ever dreamed-heavens forbid-of conquering the cosmos, he had only to try and take a planet; then Sidious would reveal his trump card.

It was only a matter of time.

* * *

Barriss Offee wasn't at all surprised by her words of her lord. It had only beena matter of time before Karr reached out with the Force to investigate what was going on, and now that he had...

...well, it had come to this.

Darh Karr: her master, husband, and Dark Lord of the Sith, loomed over her like a thunder cloud, saffron eyes searing into her sapphire with eerie intent. The Mirialan woman shivered, her mouth open in a small round oval, unable to complete the sentence; to finish the words that threatened to leave her lips.

The blond sith leaned over her, the flames of desire-of anger-sparkling in his eyes. They were strange eyes. Very strange, for a sith. Barriss had been _frightened_ of them in the beginning she hadn't liked meeting his gaze. But that had been a long time ago. A very long time ago.

And now, she found herself frightened of them once more.

"You lied to me, Barriss." The former jedi squirmed beneath his gaze, his words cutting to the bone. There was nowhere for her to run and nowhere for her to hide, his arms trapping her body against the bathroom wall, the white towel she wore the only thing standing between her and outright nakedness.

The dread lord had come barreling into her room mere minutes before, scarcely giving her the time to dress herself before a force-augmented shove tore the durasteel door from its hinges. His usage of his unique force talent, _Shatterpoint,_ genuinely frightened her at times. Now it had her terrified. She did not know whether she was staring at the genuine article or a clone, but she knew now the fury in his eyes and recognized it as real.

Now Barriss tried a smile and instantly regretted it; her husband was in no mood. They'd been married all of two years thus, a tumultuous time of ups and downs, highs and lows. Conversely, the former knight found herself wondering which this was, and what it might be that had roused her bondmate's wrath.

"W-Whatever do you mean?"

A low growl silenced her.

"Do not lie to me, Bariss." His words were deadly soft, silken and sinister in their intent. "Do _not_ lie to me!" If there was one thing which he loathed above all else, it was lies. Though the may not have been subject to the unscrupulous desire to share him with the others-she only bedded him when they were alone-she nonetheless found herself reminded of a krayyt dragon

She knew he adhered to a different axiom than most sith, and that he'd never harm her, but even so, she couldn't complete the thought that he might actually hurt her if she did not give him the answer he sought.

"You're pregnant." It was not a question, but rather, a statement.

Barriss nodded, the sudden motion causing her raven tresses-still damp from the shower-to bob slightly. She'd meant to tell him, she really had...a month ago. Now, there could be no mistaking it. The swelling of her stomach, had grown increasingly prominent of late, difficult to try and mask during the course of her pregnancy to begin with, and now, two months she'd had become increasingly reclusive, desperate to conceal the awful truth for as long as possible.

His fingers roamed across her olive skin, sending the sweetest shivers shooting down her spine. At any other time she would have gladly welcomed his touch. Now, she fidgeted. She let out a small peep of fear.

"You're...not angry?"

"Of course I am!" Karr snarled, but his words were empty, without rancour. "You _lied_ to me, Barriss. You know how I hate it when you do that." He turned his back on her, briefly regarding the destruction he'd wrought. "You should have told me this sooner. I might've been able to do something-

There came the unmistakeable sound of a lightsabre being ignited, and Karr looked over just in time to see possibly the most the murderous glare he had ever seen on her features. And this came from a sith lord! Karr actually found it rather sexy, in a feral sort of way. Her hand moved with acute swiftness and it was onlya last minute nudge from the force that sent the sabre flying out of her grasp and skittering across the floor.

"Oh force me," he muttered, seeing her thunderous expression. "I didn't mean it like that and you know it." As much as Karr might've despised the very concept of calm, he admitted it had its uses when it came to soothing the soul of a young woman such as Barriss. When it came to her, he couldn't just run about wreaking havoc whenever he felt like it. Oh no, she wouldn't like that at all. She certainly didn't like it now!

"You have five seconds to explain what the _kriff_ you meant," the former padawan hissed in return and for a moment, a mere moment; the smallest sliver in time, Karr watched those expressive blue eyes become stained with gold. Briefly, he balked a bit; he no longer experienced the concept called fear but it was in times such as these he was reminded of it all the same an it galled him. Women were truly terrifying sometimes! Especially when they were pregnant!

Karr snarled at her; Bariss bared her teeth right back.

_"Five."_

"Stang." He spat at the floor. "Just give me a second-

_"Four."_

"Bariss, this isn't funny-

_"Three."_

"I'm warning you-

_"Two."_

"Cut it out-

_"One."_

"Enough!" Naruto bellowed, throwing the full weight of the Force, behind his words. "I am Darth Karr, and you **will **treat me as such, you troublesome woman!" He glared bloody red daggers at Bariss, daring her to continue. When she did not, Naruto drew a deep breath of his own.

"I _meant_, I would've liked to know whether or not I was going to be a father." He swore beneath his breath, cursing himself for not sensing her pregnancy earlier. He reached out to her now, touching the life in her womb with the Force, and recoiled in disbelief. When the force came for him this time, the images were far too swift for him to read. Countless futures swam in and out of focus for him; life, death, peace, sorrow, and yet in each, there was a single contant. _Twins._ Barriss was pregnant with twins?!

Bariss must have sensed his efforts; because her expression, though still dark, became less thunderous. She ceased her so-called doomsday countdown, her features softening.

"Truly?"

"Truly-oooofff!"

He made no move to resist when she shoved him backwards; toppling him out of the bathroom, sending him sprawling upon the bedroom floor. He sat up, propping himself on his elbows. When he looked up Offee slapped him on the back of the head with enough force for him to feel it.

"You are the worst man in the universe,"

She sat on his lap, and when he looked up her face hung a mere millimetres from his own. Their noses were touching as her furious expression gave way to a loving tender look; her features softening so suddenly, so swiftly, that the Dark Lord was a bit taken aback.

"But you're my man."

She darted forward, mouth sealing over his in a chaste kiss before he knew what hit him. It was over in an instant, and the sith found himself hungering for her as Barriss leaned into him, feeling an arm fall onto her hip, holding her in place as Karr placed a soft kiss against the nape of her neck. His fingers un-wound the towel from her waist and cast it aside, hurling the damp garment to the floor; his fingers seeking out the subtle bulge of her stomach.

"I suppose I can live with that." he murmurred into her. She shivered against him, her fingers plucking at his cloak and his armour and then his chest, peeling aside each article of clothing to reveal the man beneath the armour. She gasped as this man, this sith lifted her from the floor and carried her to the bed, careful-very careful-so as not to harm her.

Her back greeted the sheets and then the headboard as she strove with fumbling fingers to unbuckle the clasp securing his pants, his mouth making the task all the more difficult as it suckled at the sweet spot on her neck. By the Force! Desire like an open flame roared through her and scoured her clean when she felt it; the bulge pressing into her clit, through the fabric of his slacks.

"Tell me you want me, Bariss." he whispered in her ear, his mouth nibbling at her ear, his hand seeking her bosom. "Tell me you need me."

"I want you!" she gasped out, squirming beneath him as her hands grappled with his belt. "I need you!" A furious flick of her hand with the force sent the belt tumbling away pants and all, leaving her husband to join her in her nakedness. She spread her legs for him, restlessly awaiting him as his erect member touched the sensitive folds of her swollen sex.

And then he was in her, within her, each thrusting sending a savage spike of agony down her spine. She locked her legs with him and against his waist, forced him deeper. Harder. This was why she refused to share him with the others. Bariss was too selfish; too greedy to allow him to be in bed with anyone but her at any one time. Oh, she knew of his other apprentices, but she would only ever allow him to take her when they were alone.

Today, on the eve of Christmas Eve, was no exception.

She wouldn't be able to do such things months from now as time passed as she became heavier and heavier with child. _With children._ Bariss had seen Darth Karr's expression when he reached out to her in the force, and then she had seen his delight at the knowledge. His love for her.

It was in times such as these that she wondered why she hadn't left the order sooner. She'd missed out on so much, the life all sentients were entitled to; a life she herself had been denied. Life. Love. Happiness. Everything she'd ever shunned within those hallowed halls was now hers. She had friends here. Family. And a lover that could satisfy her every whim and need and oh dear lord...

Baris flushed as she felt her orgasm coming on again, and was helpless to do so much as slow it. She always came so quickly under his touch; was always helpless to prevent it. And yet still, she fought on, mouth wrestling against him, tongue tangling against him as he touched and stroked and thrust and...kami!

"Ohhhh...MY LORD!"

This time, Bariss Ofee could not resist as she came. As the warmth of his seed filled her, capturing her with delight. She gave a small moue of contentment and collapsoed against him, her green skin slicked with seat. She gasped out one final time and delivered a chaste kiss to his lips before sinking back down to his chest.

"Naruto...

"Hmm?" Though he was already falling into slumber he stirred against her, regarding her through lidded slits. Despite herself the former padawan felt her skin tingle with renewed passion. She wanted him again. She wanted him so badly it hurt, and it made her feel safe, loved, and warm. She managed to ask a single question before she slipped into slumber.

"You'll love our children, won't you?" She snuggled closer against him, smiling as he stroked at her dark hair.

"Of course." There could be no mistaking the fervor in his words when he spoke. Mariss felt him through the Force, and knew knew what he had said to be true. She could see them now. Her family. Sith, though he might be, she knew he wouldn't dare harm their offspring, just as he'd never harm her. And should anything ever happen to her, he would raiise them, teach them all that he knew. She could see it now, in her future.

_Happiness._

And thus, she contented herself to sleep

* * *

_(Elsewhere)_

Shaak Ti woke with a start, her body screaming her mind adrift admidst a sea of pain. She tried to center herself in the light of the Force; to embrace the agony and the anger and push them aside as she was often wont to do but the searing lance of agony wedged within her gut made the idea made her think twice. She felt a sudden and swift spike of delight somewhere in the upper levels, a prescence in the force she vaguely recalled, though nowhere near as fierce as it felt now. She felt a wave, rolling over her, emanating in the afterglow of a feeling she herself had never experienced in her lifetime.

_Love._

Like a gentle breeze wafting across her face, the softest whisper in her ear, she felt it. Heard it. The Force spoke to Shaak Ti, telling her of what had transpired, revealing a oung yMirilian in a blissful slumber, her head tucked into the chest of her lover beside, her body spooned against him.

_Bariss?_

She was here? In the compound? Shaak Ti struggled to sit up, but another spike of pain senting her sprawling back down. It was the restraints, she realized. Electro-shock cuffs. And with the shock, came memory.

She remembered pain; lightning jolting across the expanse between her and the sith lord, striking her before she could hope to draw her saber. Agony, licking across her flesh, sending her body into spasms. She hadn't been fast enough. Too slow. He had beaten her, disarmed her with ease.

Shakk Ti felt naked without her lightsaber, but she was a jedi master, and she had other tools to avail herself of. With a brief mental effort she forced the pain to the back of her mind and embraced clarity. She stretched her senses out, searching for a way through the fog clouding her senses, for anything, anything at all...

_There._

"Maris...

Through the haze of the dark side she felt her padawan, sensed her in the Force. Maris was alive. Beyond that she knew little yet she dared not reach out to her, lest Karr sense her movements.

"Ah, and so the sleeping beauty stirs."

"Oh, force me." Shaak Ti let the curse slip as the doors whooshed open, revealing the very same sith, flanked by two guards, beings she had not seen at the landing pad. They vaguely reminded her of mandalorians and yet, their garb was..off. Lacking in armour of any sort, each wieldied what looked like a staff. Despite these warrior's trappings, it was immediately obvious to Shaak Ti that they posed no threat.

The force was barely alive in them. The power that burned so brightly inside Karr was nothing but a dying ember of gray ash in these two. Master though she was she couldn't help but pity the pair; these two had been discovered and trained at a late age, too late to unlock their true potential. There was nothing she could do for them.

One of them was male the other, intimately female, that much was painfully obvious even with her form obscured by the fold the cloak. She clung to Karr like a second skin, her body seeming to meld with the darkness itself; merging with the shadows whenever Shaak Ti looked away. Nay, the jedi master was forced to focus upon the woman wondering all the while what was blunting her perception in the force.

She didn't need the Force to sense their resolve, however. This pair remained utterly dedicated to Karr; willing to give their lives for their lord at a moments notice. Shaak Ti, was momentarily taken aback by it; she did not expect such loyalty from what she assumed to be hired hands.

"Leave us." Karr commanded and the pair vanished without a word. Rather one of them did. The second lingered, her helmet turned toward Shakk Ti, then back to him. She seemed to fidget for the briefest of instants, clearly contemplating whether or not she should leave her lord alone with this woman. And in that instant, her defenses lowered, Shaak Ti realized she'd been brutally deceived; because the woman was masking her prescence in the force.

Though she clearly stood there, concerned and contrite, she let her barrier slip, and what had been a dying ember became a roaring flame. Belatedly, Shaak Ti realized this woman's level of skill was near that of a knight's or perhaps even a low-level master. Just who was this Darth Karr, to surround himself with such loyal individuals?

"Ino." Karr sighed, sensing her intent. "I will be fine."

The guardswoman stiffened. She laid a single cage down at his feet, the like of which contained a large lizard, clinging to an equally large branch. In her stunned state, Shaak Ti found herself curiou,s as to just what this creatures was, but ultimately, Karr's conversation with his chief lieutenant distracted her senses.

"I'll be down the hall, should you need me."

Karr's face creased in a small smile.

"And I'll be right here, dear."

The woman made a small sound that could've been embarassment or exasperation, or possibly even both. She slapped both hands against a nearby panel and the door whooshed shut, separating them.

Shaak Ti waited until she was certain they were alone. Only then did she dare to look the sith lord dead in the eye. Karr may have caught her unawares the first time, but he would so easily do that a second time.

"I suppose you intend to torture me now, sith?" She knew he would try to break her; knew he wanted to turn her, but she'd not give him the satisfaction. She was a jedi master. She would stay strong. She would not break, she would not falter even if it meant certain death-

_"Torture you?"_

The Dark Lord blinked, his clear eyes wide with surprise.

"Do you truly think so little of me, master jedi?" He gestured with a hand and Shaak Ti subsuquently balked as her restraints flew open as one, leaving her utterly unbound. The dark lord offered Shaak Ti a hand; the togrutan carefully ignored it whilst she rose. There was not so much as a single lightsaber at his belt; not, that it mattered, she was too baffled to even consider fleeing, her dumbfounded mind refusing to even contemplate the matter of her escape. She was vaguely aware of Karr and a strange numbness began to envelop her the longer she looked at him. Was he hiding his prescence in the force? No, but then what was going on? What was happening?

"You...what...why?" she managed to sputter. Her head was still swimming; had she been drugged? She tried to reach out for the Force, but felt only emptiness. Something was wrong. Something was terribly, horribly wrong. She struggled to stand, to rise, to do anything at all, but her body betrayed her; her legs giving out the moment her feet touched the floor.

"Oh!"

Strongs arms encircled her, and Shaak Ti hadn't the strength to fight them. She collapsed into him, her fists clutching at the lapels of his jackeout. She reached out for the Force, once more and found only emptiness; she could not touch the powerful nexus of life energy she'd known all her life. It was simply and abruptly gone. Her control, slipping through her fingers like so much water when she tried to grasp at it.

"What have you done to me?" She gasped out, feeling as though she'd just lost a limb. "What have you-

-done?" he finished for her. _"I_ have done nothing. Tell me Shaak Ti, do you know of the _Ysalamiri?_ Of course you do. It holds the most marvelous ability to the most fascinating thing; to prevent anyone within its radius from exerting any influence over the Force whatsoever." Of course, I am also without the ability to use the Force at present, but I have...other talents and am not so reliant upon either as to make them my crutch as you have."

Shaak Ti fumbled against him, tried to strike him. He caugh her wrist as effortlessly as one would a petulant child, his fingers tight against her slim arm. She felt weak. Disoriented.

"You are no captive." Karr admonished her attempt. "So long as you swear not to speak of what transpires within these walls you are free to come and go as you please." He released her abruptly, the doors sliding open to reveal the armed guard from before. She saluted smartly and reached down for the lizard, plucking both lizard and harness from the earth, as though they weighed naught but a feather. Her faceplate stared out at her; cold, emotionless, betraying nothing. Without a word, she did the inexplicable; taking Shaak Ti by the arm and leader down an opposite passage.

"This way if you would, master jedi."

"I have a party to attend." The dark lord chortled softly. "It simply wouldn't do for one of my guests to discover a jedi of your calibre locked in the basement now would it? Now come lets get you dressed." Shaak Ti blanched as she found herself led off by the ysalimir-bearing woman towards an adjacent room.

"What?!"

Karr's laughter_-or rather, the laughter of his Kage Bunshin-_could be heard down the hall.

"Why, for the party, of course!" Karr chortled. "You and your padawan are to be guests of honor! But before you prepare for the fesitivities, I should tell you something about Bariss Offee, since your padawan seemed oooh so concerned about her the other day."

"And that would be?"

"She's a screamer." Karr stated with much mirth, before turning on his heel and striding down the corridor, leaving a fuming Shaak Ti in his wake. The jedi master flushed, desperately trying to ward off the perverted images of Barriss in the throes of passion from invading her brain. So _that_ was what she'd felt earlier.

By the Force...what had she gotten herself into?

**A/N: Hmmm...seems there's more to Karr than meets the eye. And what better way to subdue an unruly master jedi than by taking away her control over the force? I hope you enjoyed the holiday cheer I've inserted into this chapter, as well as the next one. I just found it so...appropriate, given the holidays. That, and a bit of humour is always warranted, especially given that someone decided it would be fun to string banana's around my house today lol!**

**Aaaand Naruto-Karr!-has a lot of firepower coming his way. Dooku's hired Aurra Sing to elminate him, the Jedi Council wants to investigate him, and Naruto has a pact with Sidious?! So much has happened! Alas, there was no flashback this chappy, though we'll be seeing more of those next chapter. And if Aurra Sing thinks she can just off that many trained individuals so easily...well, she has another thing coming. I've also fiddled with the timeline a tad, as although this takes place after Ansion, its still a few months before the Clone Wars.**

**WARNING: THERE WILL BE MORE LEMONS NEXT CHAPTER!**

**Continue to send your votes and your opinions in! I enjoy them! They're giving me all kinds of ideas! And be sure to stay tuned for the next chapter of Light and Shadow! That one's almost finished, and only has one or two chapters left in it at the most. I plan to continue this story and Dark Side of the Moon in tandem. I want to at least finish these two before taking on another. So...hope ya enjoyed!**

**And of course...**

**...REVIEW! It is your destiny! As is this preview!**

_Karr had never before been so confounded by a jedi._

_They knew nothing. With Sidious's triumph, assuming he did, in fact, triumph, there would be strife the galaxy over. A period of peace, followed by an incorriigible invasion, punctuated by yet another period of peace, and then chaos once more. Naruto had seen the rise and fall of many sith lords in his vision, of the future; Darth Vader and Darth Caedus to name a few. Where did he fit into all this? He had not seen himself, nor his wives, nor even his apprentices amongst them._

_But this did not make sense. He'd allied himself with the sith lord shortly after his mastery; it was either that, or risk outright destruction from the jedi. If the sith were to triumph and he to take advantage of Sidious, then why was he not in these new visions of the future? Then again, the sith did always betray one another. Perhaps Sidious planned to use him as a scapegoat for the jedi? To abandon him to his own fate? To leave him alone?_

_Back then he'd always alone in his studies, becoming more and more aloof with each passing day..._

* * *

_Naruto looked up from the holocron, wincing as his fingertips throbbed. In the weeks since his "discovery" he'd taken great pangs to keep it secret. He had not suceeded. Shortly after their return to Konoha, Kurenai-sensei had come to visit him. A most unexpected occurrence, but looking back on it, he knew their meeting was destined; the will of the Force at work._

_"Naruto, we need to talk."_

_The blond blanched._

_"Now's not the best of times."_

_"Why do you hide your master from me, apprentice?" Naruto balked as Bane's voice echoed behind him. Crapola! He'd left the holocron on._

_"She isn't my...that's not..._

_"Is there somene else in there?"_

_"No!" The blond sputtered. "Erm...ah, I mean...no..._

_Kurenai shouldered her way inside, crimson eyes bulging so large he was certain they'd fall right out of her pretty little head; as it were she blinked; once, twice, then thrice._

_"Oh." She blinked once more. __"This is..._

**R&R! =D**


	5. Temptation

**A/N: Very well! Naruto's sith nameshall remain Darth Karr! And to all thoseStar Wars fans who want still more star wars characters in the harem, I am pleased to say that Celeste Morne and possibly Alli Galliana (Sir's once former master) will be included in this fic, though not Siri herself. I completely and totally ship her with Obi-Wan, just as I respect AnakinxPadme too much to steal her away from him and put her in the harem. And my friends remember, the Clone Wars are a-coming! And in other news I recently bought and have become hopelessly addicted to SWTOR, which is why I havent been updating as much as of late. Some of you guys and gals might even see me online from time to time! But I wanted to update something before the need to play took me again, soo...here we are.**

**And with that...**

**...I humbly present you with the next chapter. **

_"__She's devoted, boy, not evil. Just like...__Just like you._"

_~Kyuubi._

**Temptation**

By the Force...what had she gotten herself into?

These were the thoughts of Mariss Brood, echoing that of her master. She too was alone, but not as she'd expected to be. She was alone, yet surrounded. At first she thought the guards would truss her up and throw her in a cell the moment she'd been healed, leave her there to rot. They hadn't. Quite the opposite, actually.

Once Karr's medical staff had reattached her arm, she'd found herself all but ushered to one of the upper floors by a number of slaves, their races broad as the glaxy itself. From Togrutan to Twilek-not so much as a Zabrak amongst them, she noted-they hustled the reeling padawan up a flight of stars, through a turbolift and finally, to a solid looking door flanked by a pair of masked yet still equally solid-looking Kaleesh bodyguards.

Wrapped in thick, black plated armor, the aliens stood erect and at attention, their golden eyes following her as she neared the doorway. Despite herself and all her training, the padawan felt a tendril of terror worm its way into her gut. So Karr had enlisted the aid of the infamous warrior race after all.

Their appearance belied their ferocity; Mariss couldn't help but blanch at the sight of them. Kaleesh were well-known for their warlike nature; they made for excellent shock troopers. She sensed that these two were no exception. One was emphatically female even beneath the contour of her attire, the other, distinctly male. Each bristled_-visibly!-_at the sight of Mariss, their hands drifting to the vibroblades_-laced with cortosis most likely-_sheathed at their belts. She knew they would use them against her-against a jedi-without hesitation. Their hatred of the jedi for failing to repulse the Huk from their homeworld, for protecting them when they, the Kaleesh, sought vengeance, was well known.

And know they saw her.

"Another jedi for Lord Karr." One of the Kaleesh-the male-rumbled deep into his mask, his golden slitted eyes training mercilessly upon Mariss. "It is a shame, little one. I would've very much liked to add your lightsaber to my collection. Alas, it seems that is not to be_...for now."_ He chortled softly to himself as he brushed a hand against his belt and then _only then_ did Mariss Brood recognize the odd hilts at his waist. Lightsabers. The kaleesh had the weapons of a jedi. Many jedi. She recalled the number; the sabers of the first strike team sent to stop Karr.

Mariss felt a pit open in her stomach. Her heart leapt into her throat; it was as if the Force itself had given way, leaving her standing above the precipiece, hanging between life and death. When she finally found the words, they were thick with an emotion she hadn't felt in a long time. Sorrow.

"Where...where did you get those?"

The Kaleesh laughed; it was a deep, throaty sound. He leaned forward, his eyes black pits behind the mask. His breath, warm and fetid, washed over her, leaving the padawan more nauseated than she'd ever felt before. And that was _before_ he spoke.

"Lord Karr is most generous in his instruction; studying at his feet, even one as unworthy as I can learn to kill you and your kind, _jedi."_

The pit in Brood's gut warped into a black hole; threatening to drag her in and obliterate her mind altogether. Even with the Force she knew his words rang true, painfully so. This Kalessh..._this monster,_ had killed her comrades, and he'd done it with gleeful malice in his heart. A non-force user, kill a jedi? Absurd! Ridiculous!

Once she would've scoffed at such a thing and dismissed his claim out of hand, but now, now...she was beginning to have second thoughts. Nine hilts hung at his waist. One for each of the jedi he must've slain. Bariss Offee's blade was strangely and conspicuously absent, however, though the thought did precious litttle to ease the shattered state of her mind. With a soft hiss, the Zabrakian stepped backwards, wrapping the force around herself like a shield, as though she could somehow ward off the piercing glares directed at her. She could not retreat, not with the servants at her back, nor could she hope to smash through the stoic Kaleesh barring her path. Her frustration flared, fanning the flames of her fury.

Had they brought her here to be killed then? Was this all a trick, to lull her into a false sense of security? Well, she wouldn't go quietly! She would fight! To her last breath, she would-

_"Enough of this."_

The words tore through her defenses like the claws of an angy rancor, shattering her resolve. Mariss half-expected to find the Lord of the sith standing at her shoulder. Imagine her surprise when she found it was the as-of-yet silent Kaleesh woman who had spoken.

"Grievous." The female kaleesh beside him spoke softly but when she did, her words carried the weight and authority of her station. "She has not yet proven herself. Do not provoke her." For the longest moment there was silence. Then the arrogant male did something that surprised Mariss. He bowed. Those cruel eyes seemed to soften, just for an instant, and when he did next raise his head, his words were not those of a subourdinate to a superior, but rather, one loved one to another.

"You are right as always, Kummar, my love." He cast a withering glare at Mariss, eyes swelling with hatred. "I forget myself once again in the prescence of these jedi dogs."

"Do not despair, beloved." Even behind that mask, the smile_-the ardour_-could be felt in her words although not a speck of it was directed at Mariss. "This one may yet fail her trial. If she does...then the children shall have their way with her."

Grievous cackled harshly.

"Do you hear that, girl? Your fate is about to be decided. I suggest you tread carefully. It would be such a shame if you were to meet with an unfortunate_...accident."_

Marriss could _taste_ the rancour of those words and barely bit back her own bile. Barring her master,-if she was still alive-she, a mere padawan, was trapped. Alone, in an enemy compound, surrounded by races who wished for nothing more than death and destruction for her outright. She didn't want to know what these children were, and thus, didn't ask.

Muttering something about "kriffing jedi" the kaleesh male returned to his post.

"Enter, jedi." Grievous spat the name as if it were a curse-to him it probably was-and indicated the door with a loose hand. "Lord Karr does not wish to be kept waiting." Silence beckoned, and in that silence, Mariss contemplated her eventual escape. She felt naked without her lightsaber, true, but she had other weapons at hand.

It ocurred to her that she could use the Force to thrust the guards back against the bulkhead and make her escape, but where would she go? She could not feel her master in the force, and their mission brief had failed to detail the inner workings of Karr's compound. She could interrogate a servant but...would they even tell her anything? Would their minds be weak enough for her to see and manipulate? She cast her senses about and prayed she was not doomed to failure.

In the end, the decision was not hers to make.

The door whooshed open, revealing a young zeltron woman in long, diaphounous robes. Zeltrons were well renowned for their beauty as well as their wild ways. It did not surprise Mariss to see one here in a Sith Lord's palace. Her red skin seemed to gleam in the dim light, her blue eyes danced flames, the force burned in her like a supernova, eclipsing any power Mariss might've brought to bear. An acolyte, then. So the dark lord was in fact training others. The thought stirred a pinprick of old dread in her stomach, evoking her master's words to her in the shuttle.

_The Sith are returning._

They'd spoken of it en route to Ninjato, where her master had voiced her fears of the council's heavy-handed approach to the re-emergent sith lord. Blademaster though she was, Shaak Ti was a ferverent believer in peace and democracy; if, she could talk an opponent down from a fight, then she would. She understood the Sith needed to be destroyed, just as she understood that anger and agression were the ways of the dark side, but she'd been adamant on talking the sith down, rather than fighting. To do so recklessly would lead to the Dark side.

And Mariss had given in. She'd let the hate flow through her, her desire to destory the sith-to save Aayla!-overwhelming all else. Because of her actions, not only had they failed to subdue Darth Karr, but they'd been captured and her master, her kind, gentle master, was likely being tortured for information even as she stood her gawking at this strange and beautiful woman. The mere thought of it made her want to weep. And yet with two words from the zeltron, all her sorrow was swept away.

"Mariss Brood?" The zeltron acolyte asked, practicallly purring her name. The padawan shivered once more, but this time it was not fear that prickled her skin. It was something else. Something, a feeling, a sense she'd locked away for so long she scarcely even recognized it. _Lust._ She couldn't help but feel the faintest touch of _desire_ burning beneath the blue eyes of the alien woman. There was an indefatigable charisma about her, though whether that stemmed from the dark side remained to be seen-and Mariss felt herself drawn to her, felt herself nodding in compliance to the soft inquiry.

The zeltron smiled.

"This way, mistress." she beckoned, returning to the darkness of the door. "Lord Karr awaits you." Mariss watched her go, dithered a moment longer, uncertain as to whether she was being baited into a trap. She could sense the Dark Side; thick and angry and hateful beyond that door, and it frightened her. Sparing a baleful glare at the Kaleesh, she reluctantly stepped into the waiting blackness.

It clung to her like a wet blanket, thick and heavy, smothering her, the light inside of her. Mariss choked back a gasp but pressed on after the dark-skinned sorceror, shivering as she went. The darkness grew deeper, the air colder, and she had the vaguest sensation of walking downhill. They were progressing deeper into the compound then. Away from master Shaak Ti. Wherver she was. And then the black pressed in around her, blinding her to all else and she had no more time for thought. Gone. Her vision was gone! It was as if a hand had reached inside her and snuffed out what little light she had left, leaving her tumbling in the dark. She fought the panic as it rose, but to no avail. A small cry escaped her clenched teeth.

When she slowed, the zeltron took her by the hand and led her onward, guiding the befuddled padawan through the blackness.

"Why can't I see?" Mariss cursed herself for the weakness in his words. "What...what's happened to me?"

"It is the will of the master," The woman replied, "That I blind you until you have reached him."

"You're...you're doing this to me?" Brood returned, aghast. "How? Why?"

A silken laugh resounded in her ears; like the chimes of a thousand bells.

"How? I don't think I'm ready to tell you that just yet." She tugged her forward. "As to the why...you'll learn soon enough. We cannot allow a jedi, even one chosen by that of the master, to know of this place before the initiation."

"Initiation?"

"It is the right that all apprentices must take." The zeltron continued, her voice a guide in the dark, "One that I myself have taken, that all with Force Sensitivity must take. You will be tested, and, should the master find you lacking, you may die. Should he find you worthy, however, you will live on under his service, study at his feet, and will want for nothing. Your every wish, be it anything, anything at all, will be granted. Anything." She spoke the words just so, with such reverence, and just a touch of ardour, her emotion naked as an unsheathed blade. Mariss couldn't help but to notice the sorrow that tinged those words.

"You failed, didn't you?"

A sharp intake of breath was her answer. When the zeltron spoke next, her voice was a sibilant, heart-stopping hiss.

"You read my thoughts, padawan. It seems the master has chosen well. Yes, I failed to become an apprentice. I am content to serve in a lesser role, however, so long as I can be of some use to the man to whom I owe my life."

She led Mariss on in silence, leaving the Zabrak with her treacherous thoughts. Part of her wanted to apolize, while the rest reveled in the pain she'd caused the older woman. She hadn't meant to offend, but offend she had. Time became nonexistent; she lost track of everything and everything as she blindly followed the zeltron in the dark.

"We are here." Brood found her hand abruptly released...

...and then it was over.

The darkness peeled back from her vision with such suddeness that Mariss staggered. She blinked, startled to find herself freed from the black, to be standing under the arch of an antechamber, massive in size and scope, like of which housed large generators and equally large landing craft. It was an improptu hangar bay of sorts, and yet, she could see others milling about towards the center of the room, a great host of individuals of various species and races, each fixated upon a single point. Of the zeltron woman there was none to be seen, for which Brood was grateful. She didn't want her sight to be taken away again.

"Troublesome," Someone muttered, his words drifting toward her as if from a great distance.

Slowly, tentatively, she approached them, trying to blend in. Garbed as she was in the black robes Karr had provided for her, it was all but impossible. She hadn't thought much of it until this very moment; she'd been stripped of her comlink and all belongings upon her capture and a servant had supplied her with the tight-fitting garments.

She earned a few odd glances here and there, but none dared speak against her.

She spied Karr in the center of the throng, surrounded by a host of men and women in military-style dress. He stood hunched over a holomap, imposed by a series of scarlet triangles and emerald cubes indicated positions, of various importance. Mariss knew not their meaning, but she recognized the format nonetheless.

She was looking at a map. Of what, she knew not. Only that it was of significant importance.

"-freely, captain." The darth was saying as she drew with earshot, though whom he was addressing, she knew not. "I would hear what you have to say on this matter." Someone shifted just out of sight and Brood blinked her surprise as she found herself face to face with one of the same guardsmen as before. Only this one's helmet was removed; revealing a remarkably young face, and black hair bound back in a ponytail. A single scar marred his cheek the only flaw in otherwise flawless face. He brushed a hand against his armour-black as night-and cradled his helmet under the length of his arm.

"I think you're making a mistake, holding this galla, Naruto." he said, matter-of-factly.

"Oh?" Karr's eyes drifted upward, narrowed in thinly veiled amusemnt. "How so?"

"In general." The man grumbled, switching his helmet to the other hand. "Security is going to be tight enough with the Tsuchikage and Raikage present, but aren't you worried an assassin might sneak in?" Karr merely blinked, but the black-haired man pressed on. "On top of all that we've got another delegation from the jedi temple coming in; what makes you so certain they won't attack you or the Kazekage during the festivities?" A low murmurr of dissent trickled through the circle at his words, but if Karr felt any anger, Mariss realized, he was masking it well.

He surprised her with a scoff, batting the captain's concerns aside with a hand.

"I may not speak for Gaara, but I know for a fact that I can handle any tricks the jedi throw at me." He reminded everyone. "So long as they bring the secret of opening the oubliette with them, I have no intention of starting another war."

"Why are you so obsessed with that damned coffin, anyway?" The captain asked and _this time _Mariss felt anger. She'd been expecting it, bracing herself for it. Even so she was nearly taken aback by the intensity of the sith lord's expression. Malice exuded from him in palpable waves, setting her hackles on edge as he rose from from the holoprojector, eyes blazing. With slow, measured, an almost arrogant strides, he brought himself face-to-face with his head of security.

"Are you questioning my authority, Shikamaru?"

"No." The man met his stare head-on, refusing to flinch in the wake of the Darth's wrath. "I promised _her _I'd do my best to keep you safe and that's what I intend to do. If this oublette represents a security threat, then I should know about it."

Karr stared at his second in command for a long, hard moment. Then he smiled. It was not a pleasant thing, that smile. He drew back, raising himself to his full, towering height. Regarding each of them in turn, he utttered a single phrase. A name.

"Celeste Morne."

"Who?" Mariss nearly asked the question itself but another of his aides beat her to the punch. She didn't recognize this one either.

"An ancient jedi, said to have died thousands of years ago." Karr explained. "She is in fact, alive and well in the basement." He raised a hand, forestalling conversation. "Alive, and yet any and all attempts to wake her have ended in failure. I could force her into a state of wakefulness of course, but you see, she has something I need. Knowledge. Power. I'd rather haver both her mind and her body intact and it is my belief, that the jedi know how to open this coffin without harming her, just as they possess the powers to wake her. When they do-for they will have no choice but to-I will reveal the next stage of our plan-

Mariss flinched as his gaze caught hers, widened a millimeter in surprise.

"Leave us." He waved a hand at them and they obeyed without question. The man known as Shikamaru seemed hesitant, but a curd nod from Karr sent him packing. Only when they were gone did he deign to speak once more. He circled around the holoprojector towards her, a predator, stalking its prey. A small, concerned smile tugged at his lips as he turned toward her, golden eyes gltittering. They narrowed at her choice of attire.

"Those robes suit you."

Mariss flushed beneath his praise.

"I...thank you."

"How's your arm?"

Mariss flexed the fingers of her restored arm; complete and whole as it'd always been, as though it had never been severed to begin with. Only it wasn't. She could still feel the Dark Lord's blade; biting into her arm like the fangs of a wild beast; truncuating it at the elbow, severing it from her body. He could've taken the entire limb, but instead, he'd chosen to make an example of her. That realization did precious little to dull the phantom pain in her appendage.

"Well." She managed. Flack. Flack flack flack! She was conversing with the very man who'd nearly killed her only a few hours ago!

"M-My master." She demanded suddenly.

"Yes?" Karr grinned.

"Not you!" Mariss hissed. "Master Shaak Ti! Where is she?"

"Alive and well, for now." The darth answered, drawing closer still. "The two of you will meet again soon. However, she is no longer your master. I am. Is that not right, Grievous?" Mariss risked a glance over her shoulder, suddenly terribly aware of the Kaleesh standing just out of earshot and across the hangar bay. How had she failed to notice their prescence? Had they followed her? In the span of two beats the male kaleesh glared balefully at her, returned his attention the door. The fiend! He was mocking her!

"And what of them?" Mariss was scrambling for an excuse as she stepped backward, her back striking the wall.

"Oh, them?" Karr chortled softly at the mention of the Kaleesh duo standing just outside the door. "The big fellow used to go by another name, but he calls himself Grievous now. I liberated them-him and that lovely friend of his-from the Huuk. You'd be quite surprised how far loyalty extends in my infrastructure." His gaze abruptly hardened, golden orbs narrowing to deadly slits. "But your fear betrays you, padawan. Every soul in this compound has sworn fealty to me on some level or another, and yet you think to subvert them. They will not turn against me. So put those thoughts from your mind, apprentice."

_Apprentice_.

The words burned in her mind like a brand as he pinned her to the bulkhead with his body. She tried to resist, but his grip was too strong, his mastery over the force, too great.

"You will serve me, my apprentice," Karr whispered sweet nothings in her ear, "Or you will never see your master again. You will serve me, or your order will burn. But I am a gentle master, Mariss Brood," he reassured. "I promise never to harm you. Never to raise a hand against you. I shall teach you everything I know, and one day, when I am gone, you will compete with the others for all that I am and ever was; the mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith. Will you learn under me, apprentice? Or will you reject your feelings and return to the light."

_'I've already lost the light,"_ she thought to herself, but darent speak it aloud.

Mariss knew she'd made a deal with the devil to save her master, but never once had she thought the Dark Lord of the Sith would actually take her under his wing and train her! Part of her, the sense of self she'd denied for so long, burned with desire at the thought of new knowledge. With his strength, she need never be weak again. Never fail again. She would be able to protect her master. She might even be able to influence him, guide the Darth down a path that didn't lead to the destruction of the Republic...

A thorn of pride pricked her and held her back. No. No, she musn't! She musn't give in! But if she didn't what would happen to Master Ti? She loved the woman like a mother, althought jedi were forbidden to love. They were forbidden from so many things, and only now did she the wisdom in it. Only now, when it was too late to renounce herself, did she realize her mistake. Her brash an foolish attack on Karr's personage had been her first brush with the dark side. She stood upon a knife's edge, at the precipiece of a towering cliff. Now, as he took her chin in his hand, she found her footing beginning to erode.

The kiss_-when it finally came-_was cool and gentle, his mouth caging her upper lip between his. It was her first kiss and it was like nothing she'd ever felt before. Mariss Brood whimpered, her bone and body turning to jelly her resolve crumbling as he held her, making no move to do anything. And then her lips were moving; her body cleaving against his with an awkwardness that bespoke of an almost childlike innocence, fueled by desperation and passion. Every second he held her made her want to kiss more she wanted to scream, to cry out and slam him back against bulkhead, and run away from him, from his lips that were making her feel these things, that were doing these things to her, stoking the embers of her heart...

The longer his lips held hers the higher it roared. When he finally released her, finally raised her hands, she wasn't at all prepared for it. The first vollety sent her to her knees; the lightning wasn't so much painful this time as it was surprising. She scarcely knew how to explain it. It was if his kiss had awakened something in her, something that delighted in pain and passion and pleasure as much as she'd once loathed them.

"Mariss," The dark lord thundered, "I christen you in the name of the Dark Side, and claim you."

Lightning licked across her flesh, setting her nerves on edge, leaving her unharmed. She shivered under the baptism. And then it was done. The white bolts abated, leaving her fleshed singed, but not burned. Dark, yet cleansed.

"Rise." Karr rumbled. "You are jedi no longer. You are sith. I name you...

He paused, as though searching the force itself for a name. His smile told her he'd found one.

_...Darth Brood."_

* * *

Some levels above, Shaak Ti felt it in the force. The woman with the damnable ysalimir had retreated-perhaps for this very purpose-and she felt it as painfully as a lightsaber in her gut. She paid no heed to the servants fussing about her, readying her for the festivities. She knew only thus, that her apprentice was no longer with the light. Oh no:

Mariss Brood had fallen.

**than meets the eye. Sorry for the lack of lemons and flashback, this chapter wound up a touch different than I'd intended. For those of you who are familiar with Celeste Morne, she'll be released from the Oubliette a tad earlier than she was in the comics...this cannot possibly bode well. And still no sign of Kurenai in the present. Where oooh where is she I wonder? I'm sure at least some you're all familiar with Grievous, and as you can see, he hasn't suffered that horrific shuttle accident that made him into the monster the universe knows and loathes. Though if you're wondering about his past-and who the devil Kummar is-I would suggest you look to Wookiepedia.**

**WARNING: THERE _WILL_ BE LEMONS NEXT CHAPTER!**

**Continue to send your votes and your opinions in! I enjoy them! They're giving me all kinds of ideas! And be sure to stay tuned for the next chapter of Light and Shadow! That one's almost finished, and only has one or two chapters left in it at the most. I plan to continue this story and Dark Side of the Moon in tandem. I want to at least finish these two before taking on another. So...hope ya enjoyed!**

**And of course...**

**...REVIEW! It is your destiny! As is this preview!**

_"Amusing." Karr contemplated as he beheld Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. "It seems the jedi kept their promise after all. I presume you have it, then?" He spoke not of them; rather, the item contained within their transport._

_"We have nothing for you." Anakin replied, his sword hand twitching toward his lighstber._

_"Be mindful of your feelings Anakin," Obi-Wan warned. "they betray you."_

_"And they betray you, master Kenobi." Karr hissed._

_"What?"_

_"You claim not to love, and yet, you have loved." Naruto gloated in the knowledge, in the hypocrisy that the jedi continued to live. "You continue to love. Siri Tachi, I believe her name is?"_

_Anakin's eyes bulged so large Karr was certain they'd fall out of his head._

_"Master?"_

_"It's nothing!"_

_"And you, young Skywalker, you...baffle me. You fear for you mother, for your visions, that they might ring true. You wish to see her, to see her, to ensure her safety, and yet the council prevents it." Karr sighed, his features drawing taut with dissapointment. "Poor, poor, disillusioned jedi. Shunning the very thing that gives you strength, strength you could use to defeat me. But that is not why we are here honorable jedi, you are here to give me what I want, and in return, I shall bid you welcome to the festivities."_

_"I'm afraid we'll have to decline." Kenobi replied. _

_"On what grounds?"_

_"On the grounds that you surrender our comrades to us."_

_"Ah, this again?"_

_Twin lightsabers ignited in his hands, each a wrathful line of crimson._

_"Very well, jedi." He beckoned, snapping off a salute with each blade. "I will surrender**...if you can force me to kneel!"**_

_He blurred forward with a hiss, inserting himself between master and padawan as effortlesly as only a sith lord could. His blades flashed once twice, thrice, and then there was only the heat of the battle, a fierce, furious heat that leapt from his fingertips; the sith lightning driving Kenobi back under the harsh deluge. Karr whirled on Anakin before the padawan could think to intervene._

_"I sense great far in you, Skywalker. You have hate, you have anger, but you don't use them." He batted Skywalker's lightsaber aside with his free hand; the cortosis laced gauntlet bounced off the attack and caused Anakin's blade to spark and sputter._

_With that young Skywalker went on the offensive, his blue blade a blur of the Ataru form, the force flowing from him like an open river. Karr found himself on the back foot, startle by the boy and his sudden ferocity. By the Force! The padawan's fury was almost the equal of his own; almost, but not quite. _

_He thrust a saber at the boy's stomach and forced a block; distracting him, diverting his attention. It was enough. His hate surged upwards from his chest and into his arms, into his fingers, lightning licked at tips fingertips; a dozen black bolts promising pain._

_"Come, boy." He smiled. "Let me show you what it means to be sith!"_

**R&R! =D**


	6. Instruction

**A/N: Aaaah, and now I turn my eye to the realm of Star Wars once more. Episode Three happened to be on _Spike_ last night, and I was cursing Sidious to hell the entire damn time. I suppose that'd get anyone's muse up and rearing to go, eh? Suffice it to say this story is back on the radar, as with any other number of tales-I'm sure you've all noticed my updating spree-and I must admit, that it feels damn good to be updating on a regular basis again. Looking back on last chapter's promise of a lemon, I regret to inform that won't happen until NEXT chapter. This one is something of a re-boot to get the juices flowing yet still solid in his continuity.**

**And with that...**

**...I humbly present you with the next chapter. May the Force be ever with you!**

_"To be Sith is to never regret your actions__. Ever._"

_~Naruto._

**Instruction**

The scintilating snap-hiss of dozens upon dozens of lightsabers igniting all at once filled the night air; swelling in a rising cacophony just outside the massive complex that served as Darth Karr's home. The hour was late and the moon high, the heavenly orb serving as the sole illumination upon the ungodly night.

Darth Karr, bereft of his cortosis armor and gauntlets, clad in black vestments and leathers, ignited his lightsaber and turned to face his opponents. He snapped off a salute to each of them in kind; casting himself in the devilish light, lending his visage a ghastly pallor. But he did not speak. Not yet. Instead he allowed his golden gaze to glide across each of the students assembled before him

Gathered before him were hundreds upon hundreds of students: members of many races, hailing from many different walks of life. Some lacked aptitude with the dark side; they were but flickering embers compared to others; their power akin a candle's flame ready to be snuffed out at the slightest breath. And some surprised him. Whereas others were weak, some were strong.

Naruto caught Aayla's gaze in the crowd and held it as he read her emotions; she radiated curiousity, but also calm. In that at least her jedi training served her well. Naruto forcibly tore his gaze from hers and willed his to carry on, taking his students in.

The faces that greeted him were varied and not just by chosen species. To Karr's force-enhanced senses, their emotions were naked as day; some were hesitant, others anxious, and still many more surged in the force, their power and strength of will searing his senses like a brilliant supernova. Amongst these were his chosen, Aayla, Ventress, the newly christened Darth Brood, and even Grievous-though he lacked the ability to wield the force-each possesing a supreme sense of confidence bordering on outright arrogance. Good. He'd bid them all to gather here tonight, for a single, solitary purpose; a purpose that would soon be revealed.

Drawing a deep breath, his golden eyes glittering gleefully in the full moon's light, Karr addressed his followers, starting to speak.

"_To be Sith is to never regret your actions__." _he began. His words were stern and heavy, laden with dark intent, in the crisp evening air. "To be Sith is to never falter, to do what must be done. To not hesitate. To show no mercy." These words were directed to his students and apprentices-each armed at the very least with a single weapon. Some wielded a lightsaber. Others, ampistaffs or vibroblades. A chosen few, even favored the less than orthodox-and far from traditional-lightwip of ancient lore.

Naruto-Karr!-took each of them in turn, assessing their measure, weighing their worth; and all the while sensing the abscence of one most keenly.

Bariss alone was not present tonight, and for good reason; with the Mirilian woman so heavily pregnant, he couldn't have her participating in this exercise without running risk of her suffering a miscarriage now, could he? Ventress wasn't near far enough to be subject to such risk-not that she would've missed this for the world-and, as such, even she was present tonight. Darth Karr expected great things from her. He expected great things from all of them. Ah, but he digressed. He'd gathered them here for a reason.

It was the night before the grand galla, the night before he was to launch his grand plan; a plan that would catch both the jedi and the sith unawares. A plan that if successful would both bring vengeance for everything that had happened to him since he'd first found Bane's holocron. Once he put it into motion, his..._agreement_ with Darth Sidious-though he still knew not the man's true identity-would be moot in point. The man thought he held a noose over Karr's neck, when in reality, he was blissfully unaware of the own slowly tightening around his throat. Let the man wage his war. They would be waiting.

Tomorrow would change everything. Tomorrow the jedi would come, bringing with them the secret of the obulette, the key to open the coffin which housed Celeste Morne.

And so tonight, on this night of nights he had bid them all gather here, to cull the weak from the strong, to imbue them with what very well might be_-for some of them-_his final lesson. Oh, there would be many more to come, but only for those who passed tonight's test. Some would die. Many would suffer. But for those who survived...

_...only greatness awaited._

"To be Sith is to let your passions ignite, but you must never become a slave to them." Karr instructed, leaving them rapt with attention, "You must master your passions. Bend them to your will. Make them your own. Observe!" He gestured with his free hand, and a dazzling bolt of sith lightning erupted from the tips of his fingers, ripping into the ground at their feet to gouge the stone at their feet. One of the students, a human lad of perhaps seventeen only _just_ taking his first tottering steps into adolescence, trembled in fear. He inched backward. The motion was not lost on his mentor.

Naruto made an angry noise between his teeth.

"Why do you cower, whelp?"

"I...I...

Scarce had the boy blinked than the sith lord loomed before him, golden eyes narrowed to mere pinpricks of saffron in the early light. Lightning crackled a dire warning from his fingertips, a deadly promise of pain if he answered incorrectly. In many ways the lad reminded him of himself; of when he'd first come in contact with the force. He had been frigthened. Teirrified. Unable to understand-unwilling to comprehend-the majesty of this power and all that it was willing to offer.

But tragedy had a way of molding your mind to the situation. By accident or design, Karr had killed someone with this power. He'd ended a life, when he hadn't meant to. He had lost control, and as such, he was forced to live with the consequences of his actions. That death had done something to him. Broken him. Shaped him. One tragedy followed the next, racing of the heels of his first mistake, then the second, and a third. Before long he began to realize _he _was the cause of this misfortune, not the force.

The next time someone died, it had been on his blade. They'd been a friend. Trying to lead him back to the light. And he'd killed her. Ended her life, in cold blood. Her death had galvanized him. Made him into the man-the monster-he was to this very day. It was in her memory that he swore to never lead a life of regret, to always act on his impulses. To trust his instincts_-to trust the force_-which he'd ignored so often in the past. And where head tose

Looking at him now, this boy cowering before him, Karr saw himself. He saw the foolish, ignorant youth he had been. And he wondered:

_Why was I ever that naive?_

The thought stirred something inside him. Before anyone could think to stop him the sith made a pinching motion with his right hand, bringing his thumb and forefinger dangerously close together. The student rasped in surprise, alarmed to find his airway constricted, by the very one whom he'd sworn to serve. The flicker of fear inside him erupted into full fledged panic. Naruto scowled at him, disguisted. He knew what it was like to be choked by the dark side; the first time he'd been on the receiving of its wrath, he'd nearly panicked himself. But he hadn't. Instead he'd unleashed his anger and torn his opponent limb from limb. If this boy was to be a true sith, then he would try to do the same. If not...

"Answer me." Karr growled, holding the boy's life in the palm of his hand. "Do you fear me? Do you hate me?"

The lad stuttered for a long moment, then seemed to realized the doom that was about to befall him. He couldn't lie; because Karr would sense this. He could not remain silent. If he did the dark lord was liable to strike him down, to choke him to death in recompense for his silent temerity. All that was left for him was to tell the truth.

"I...yes."

The Darth's face contorted in a rictus of fury.

**"Wrong answer."**

There was only the softest _thrum _as Karr's lightsaber piercd ethe boy's neck and severed his head from his shoulders, rolling onto the ground in a perverse fashion of a ball. His bereft body struck the ground with harsh muffled thud and lay still. There was a gasp from somewhere within the crowd. Every being here was utterly loyal to him, and though it pained him-truly-to do this, he'd no choice. The boy would never have made it as sith. He was not strong, in mind or body. He was weak. And as master, it was Karr's duty to cull the weak rom the strong.

"Peace is a lie, there is only passion." He chanted the words as though they were a mantra, passing down the knowledge he'd gleamed from Darth Bane, then a mere student, to these pupils his own. "Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall free me. Follow these tenants -follow me- and your path shall be revealed." Darth though he might be, it was with a slight pang of regret that he uttered these words; a single command that would end the lives of so many.

"Attack me." The command was sharp and abrupt, lacking any preamble. "All of you. Together. For some of you, this will be your final test."

"Master...?"

There was a moment of hesitation as his words sank in, a murmur of confusion whilst everyone struggled to realize what he intended. In that moment Karr struck. A swathe of force lighting erupted from his fingers and ripped into the unprepared recruits, charring dozens to ash. In the time it took them to process this he stranged three more, snapping their necks with a swift and brutal fashion.

"Attack me!"

He waited, gauging their reactions, watching, waiting...

_There!_

Oddly enough, Brood was the first to comply.

The zabrak was clearly flabbergasted; although she alonside the others managed to avoid the deadly strom she was forced down to one knee. She flung a burst of dark side lightning, a dozen bolts of lightning springing from her hands, arcing at the master across from her. Instead of leaping back to avoid the deadly attack, Naruto stepped forward to greet it. He felt her deadly intent and opened himself to it, drinking in her dark desire to end him and feeding off it, growing stronger.

Both hands were held in front of him, his arms fully extended at shoulder height, his thumbs touching and his fingers splayed wide. He drew the bolts of lightning into his waiting grasp, channeling them away from their intended target and absorbing their power.

"Impressive." He chided her, gazing at the energy crackling beneath his hands. "Most impressive. You actually meant to kill me with that. However_...you'll need more!"_

Mariss's eyes went wide as Karr unleashed the power of her own attack against her. She tried to throw up a Force shield but the bolts ripped it apart and continued unabated. The lightning engulfed her, the intense heat depriving her of her defenses, stripping her of her strength and forcing her to the floor. Not killing her, but momentarily removing her from the fight nonetheless.

"Karr!"

Grievous, lightsabers in each hand, surged forward, intent to take his head. Instead of retreating the sith lord stood his ground and moved his wrist a mere millimeter to the right, allowing the otherwise deadly sword to glance harmlessly of his own blazing blade.

"Stop using the standard attacks!" Karr chastised, warding the Kaleesh warrior off as effortlessly as one would an upset child. "Use the unorthodox!" An errant thought pelted the proud warrior with deibris, momentarily forcing him back a precious pace.

A telltale buzzing at his neck was the only warning the dark lord received. Then Aayla swooped down on him from on high, her lightsaber carving a crimson arc over their heads. There was a glimmer of hesitation in her movements, her blue/crimson sabers a degree too high.

Naruto's fingers closed around empty air and pinched-not enough to strangle, but enough to restrain-and lifted her into the air.

"You're not trying." he reprimanded her as the chaos blurred around them.

"But-

Naruto hissed.

_"Try."_

Aayla stared at him for a moment, her soft blue eyes narrowing into chips of sapphiric diamond.

Karr actually _winced_ as her heel smashed into his neck, breaking his hold on her. And then she moved. There could be no other word for it. One moment she dangled before him, the next she dropped, a blur of azure of crimson and wrathful fury.

"How often must I tell you? Control my central line! Good." A flick of his fingers sent the twi'lek skidding across the floor. Scarce had he done so before Ventress was upon him. "Faster," he chided, retreating beneath a withering hail of strikes, "Destroy my focus!" Ventress scowled, her crimson sabers seeming to blur beyond his vision, striking with bone-jarring speed and force. A lesser man might've buckled beneath such an assault, faltered for such a brutal barrage.

Karr was no lesser man.

_"Orah!"_

An overhead sweep searing through her defense and scored her shoulder, the blade slicing a stinging welt upon her pallid flesh. Her hiss of pain was accompanied by a grunt of exertion; Karr stood his ground when she tried to force push him away and retaliated with one of his own, ripping the nightsister from her feet, flinging her into the hapless bodies her fellow apprentices.

"You're holding the saber too tightly!" he admonished, Mariss, turning the tide to the offense. He slapped her shoto aside with the palm of his hand, uncaring as blisters immediatly bristled beneath his skin.

"And you too lightly."

Karr didn't even bother to turn; he criss-crossed both sabers behind his back, blocking Grievious's overhand swing. A gentle tug of the force ripped the sabers from his hands, disarming him. And Naruto spread that out like a hurricane and then further still, scouring the earth with unholy fury, striking down all within range. All those whou could not withstand...simply ceased to exist.

"..."

He lowered his arms and exhaled, spent and drained from the effort.

Naruto sighed and deactivated his blade; the crimson shaft sinking into the hilt with a sizzling hiss. Of the hundreds of students, only fifty or so remained. His force-conjured storm had utterly eradicated all those who'd been lacking in strength and talent in the will to survive. But these fifty were the best. The creme of the crop. He was pleasantly surprised to see that his favored disicples had survived as well. Grievous nursed his right arm, Mariss had suffered only a light series of burns along the length of her legs.

Ventress picked herself up from a pile of debris, looking no worse for the wear. She saw him and smiled, one which he gladly retured.

_They would serve the cause well._

* * *

**A/N: Hmmm...seems there's more to Karr ****than meets the eye. Sorry for the lack of lemons and flashback, this chapter wound up a touch different than I'd intended. For those of you who may be familiar with Celeste Morne, she'll be released from the Oubliette a tad earlier than she was in the comics...this cannot possibly bode well. And now we see another hint of what shaped Naruto in the monster he is today. He killed someone with his power-accidentally-and that broke him. And then, sometime later, he killed someone else, deliberately. But who were these two that he killed by mistake or otherwise. I won't identify either of them just yet...until I do, it'll be up to you to guess, dear reader!**

**And still no sign of Kurenai in the present. Where oooh where is she I wonder? Now**

**I promise...THERE _WILL_ BE LEMONS NEXT CHAPTER!**

**Continue to send your votes and your opinions in! I enjoy them! They're giving me all kinds of ideas! And be sure to stay tuned for more chapters! I plan to continue this story alongside the rest of my works in tandem. I want to at least finish these two before taking on another. So...hope ya enjoyed!**

**And of course, in the immortal words of Darth Vader**

**...REVIEW! It is your destiny! **

**R&R! =D**


	7. Indulgence

**A/N: MWAHAHAHA! I return! It's been a terribly long time since I last touched this story, and after that last chapter -which was basically a filler- I'm proud to say that we are finally back on track! As are my plans for moving. I just laid carpet in two rooms, all that's left is to clear out a few more things, then the wedding, and I'll officially be leaving Atglen! Its rather bittersweet, seeing as I have spent all twenty-three years of my life here, but in the same vein, I think its high time for change. And on another note...we finally see what happened to Hinata and Kurenai...**

**...prepare thyself for the next chapter! Onward! Its a long one!**

_"Unto all things, an end there always is. And a beginning. Always a beginning..."_

_~Grand Master Yoda._

**Indulgence**

Later that night, Karr slept. And as he slept, he dreamnt of the past.

In the dream, he was as he had been years before, one week before the first Jedi incursion, just before he had become Sith. Back when he was still a Jonin, still Uzumaki Naruto.

It was evening, the moon hanging round and full over his head, casting its baleful light down upon him as he stood outside the Hyuuga Compound. Wreathed in black vestment, he was, knowing at long last, the time of his sacrifice was finally at hand; after tonight, after he killed his weakness, he would take up the mantle of the Sith and fufill his destiny. But he hesitated. He didn't want to. Some small part of him-probably, what little remained of his common sense-was screaming at him; telling him to stop this madness and end this insanity. It was his weakness-what remained of the boy he'd once been.

The sob was deep and exhaled on a frustrated sigh.

_"Do what must be done."_ his master's words stirred in his memory, coaxing him onward. _"Do not hesitate. Show no mercy."_

Looking back, she was the catalyst for all this; it was she who'd led him those ruins, she who revealed his mother's heritage, the legacy of Kushina's-of his mother-now extinct clan, wiped out by the order of Konoha. All of it was her doing. Long he had thought that they'd finally gained peace after crushing Obito and Madara in the Fourth Shinobi war. How wrong he had been. He had only ended another war; not established peace. She was right about one thing; so long as there were weak rulers, there would always be strife in this world. Only rule by the _strong_ could preserve the peace.

Tonight, he would give birth to that order, by killing the one thing that made him weak.

Fury surged through him like an angry tide, stirred in his veins, planting the first seeds of fear of the guards at his approach. Three men they were, not one of them a match for the power he now wielded. A power that he now brought to bear upon these fools, these three Hyuuga who thought they could defeat him with their hands alone. He bristled with anticipation, just as they shivered in suspicion.

"Halt!" The lead guard demanded. "What business do you have here?"

"Hinata." When he spoke, the words were little more than a dry rasp. "Where is she?"

The man scoffed, his lips curled into an upturned sneer.

"That is no concern of yours-

His words died away into a whisper as Naruto raised his gaze, revealing sick, yellow eyes within the cowl. The guards shrank back from him.

_"What are you?"_

The blond hissed.

**"I am your end."**

The last word hung in the air, frozen in time, as Naruto drew on the Force and augmented his speed. The curved hilt of his lightsaber-completed only a day before-filled his hand and its red line split the air. He crosscut th guard before him, putting a black canyon in his chest, continued the swing through the guard on his left, and with his left hand used a blast of power to drive the third guard into the compound gates hard enough to crush bones and kill himng him, granting the aspiring Sith Lord entry to the complex.

A host of men and women rushed to greet him with a hail of kunai; the apprentice raised his hand and there they hung, suspended in the air. An errant gesture sent them flying back from whence they came, ramming each deadly dagger to the hilt in flesh. Their flak jackets did not protect them; it only made their deaths a slow one.

Lightning leapt from his fingertips, electrifying those few unlucky enough to survive the initial barrage. Tendrils off unholy power, mastered from Darth Bane's holocron, they spared no one. These were Hyuuga after all; they knew little, if anything of long range combat. Those that did were swiftly dispatched with his lightsaber or force-choked to death in short order. He spared none. All those who dared oppose him were cut down in a most brutal fashion; mere impediments in his progress, as he stalked the halls of the compound, seeking the one he sought, sparing none. What would Neji have thought of this, he wondered? Would his old friend have seen the wisdom in the destruction of his clan? Probably not.

"That's far enough, boy."

Naruto half-turned to regard the one who had spoken, found himself staring into the steel-colored eyes of the one man he had hoped not to face this night.

Hiashi Hyuuga.

The head of the Hyuuga clan stood facing him across the hall, clad not in the white garments of his clan, but in vestments Naruto recognized from Bane's holocron. _The robes of a jedi._ He clutched a single silver cylinder in his right hand, his aging fingers knotted tightly around the device. Naruto arched an eyebrow. That couldn't possibly be...ah. As if to confirm his suspicions the man ignited it, and a venerable snap-hiss filled the halls of the Hyuuga Compound, rumbling like thunger in the form of a blazing blue blade, bursting into life from the hilt.

Naruto ignited his own weapon, his blood singing at the sight of the blade and with it, came a touch of true fear. Now it all made sense. Why he felt such a strong connection to Hinata in the Force. Her father was a jedi, the polar opposite of his master. He knew not the who, what, when, where or why, but he suddenly found it incredibly ironic. It was fitting, that a Jedi try to stop him here- _tonight - _on what would prove to be the night of his ascension to the Sith. To order. To peace.

"Your family's just full of surprises, isn't it?" he shook his head and raised his blade in a lateral stance, inviting the elder to attack. "Although, most of them are dead." He remained wary of this man; and rightfully so. He was cautious-not knowing if Hiashi was self-taught as Kurenai was, if he served another or worse; if there were still more jedi abound. Regardless, some small part of him relished the idea of such a challenge, the first true chance to test himself against a truly worthy foe.

Hiashi did not rise to take the bait; his mouth remained set in a grim line.

Naruto sighed.

"I don't expect you to understand why I'm doing this." And he didn't, though he expected Hiashi to fight to the last, regardless.

"I understand enough." They closed on one another then, their blades colliding in saberlock, sparks skittering across their swords. "You're here for my daughter," he growled as they strove against one another, each seeking the advantage, striving for the upper hand. "You mean to try and take her from me, as you did Hanabi."

_Close enough, _Naruto mused as they separated. It wasn't his fault that Hinata's younger sister happened to share a strong sensitivity to the Force. Not his fault, she was jealous of her sister. And _certainly _not his fault that Hanabi had gone to his side and begged to be trained as he was being trained. She would make a fine apprentice, someday, when he overthrew his master.

But he wasn't here to corrupt Hinata. He knew now that was impossible. She was too good, too much of the Light, and whenever he was in her prescence, she did the unspeakable; she made him _regret _the path he was taking, made him second-guess this willful descent into darkness for the sake of the greater good. That had to end.

So too, did this duel.

Eschewing speed and gracefulness for power, Naruto drove forward, battering the aging Hyuuga backwards, with powerful strikes, utilizing the one thing this old man lacked when it came to dueling. Training. Sweeping his counterstroke aside, he drove his elbow into Hiashi's face and shattered his nose, stunning him. The jedi tried to raise his blade in a desperate parry,trying to deflect that overhand slice he knew was coming on. Not quick enough.

Too late; he was already there, thrusting his lightsaber up and under the jedi's guard, severing the man's sword arm, at the elbow. Hiashi did not scream; because Naruto didn't give him that chance. He completed the thrust and turned it into a swing, severing his remaining arm, reaching up to catch the falling hilt and igniting it before it could fall.

He criss-crossed the sabers, red and blue, at the man's throat, forcing him to his knees. Hiashi gaped up at him, his resolve crumbling in wake of his defeat. They peered at one another for a moment, jedi and sith, the light and the dark, polar opposites. In that instant, Naruto realized the Jedi were another weakness in the Force...

"Mercy." he begged.

_...one that must be eliminated._

The apprentice shook his head.

"That is not the Sith way."

Naruto scissored the blades together, severing the Hyuuga's head from his shoulders; decapitating Hiashi in the time that it took for the once venerable elder to realize he'd lost much more than the duel. Naruto caught the man's head with the Force and stared at it, savoring its final moments, as though actually expecting a reply. It said nothing however to which he merely rolled his shoulders and moved on, extinguishing both blades and clipping them to his hilt.

He let the Dark Side roil through him, let it show him where she back the rice paper panel at the nearest door, and entered.

There she was; sound asleep in her bed, clad only in a simple lavender shift. Naruto ignored the stirrings of desire in his chest and entered, closing the door behind him.

He knelt beside Hinata, down at her, cradling her face in his left arm. He studied her face, its symmetry, the line of her jaw, the deep-set eyes, the perfectly formed nose. He remembered the first time he had seen her, a cowed, beaten girl, inching into her teens, struggling to stand up against her furious cousin. How she had grown since the Chunin Exams! She had been his companion at first, then his lover, his conscience ever since she'd finally worked up the gall to confess to him for the second time last year. Kurenai and Hanabi aside, she was the only one who knew the truth of his training, of what he was becoming.

And now...

Her eyes fluttered open, focused. She smiled. "Naruto-kun...you came."

"Of course," he said.

She leaned her head back into his arm, closed er eyes, and sighed contentedly.

"I knew you loved me."

"I do," he acknowledged this truth, and her smile widened. He felt tears forming in his eyes, his weakness made manifest.

She opened her eyes, saw the tears, reached up an arm to puta hand on his cheek.

"What is wrong?"

"That I love you is what's wrong, Hinata. You make me weak when I should be strong; indecisive when I must resolve to do what's right. It's why I have to do_...this."_

She blinked, those over-large orbs of swet lavender narrowing in confusion.

"Naruto-

He steeled himself, pressed the hilt to her chest, ignited his lightsaber, and watched it sear through her heart to emerge out her back.

Hinata's eyes widened, never left his face, pierced him. Her mouth opened in a surprised gasp. She seemed as if she wanted to say something, but no sound emerged from her mouth. Blood trickled from the corners of her lips, pressed now in a thin line as she stubbornly clung to life; to the fraying thread that was her concsiousness. Impossibly she was still alive. She was of the Light, and refused to die. Not yet. But he could see that light beginning to fade, her body unable to recover from the fatal blow he'd dealt to her, his last scrap of humanity.

She tried to speak, only blood emerged, spattering his face.

"Sh." Naruto hushed, cupping her cheek with his free hand, driving the blade deeper with the other. "Don't fight it, Hinata. Just let go."

She was fading now, swiftly; managing only two words.

"But why...

"You don't need to understand." Naruto pressed his lips to hers in a soft, chaste kiss-they were oh so cold-reminding himself of how they felt in this, in her very last moment. "But know this; your death will save billions maybe even more. Everything I do from here on out will be in memory of you, to make certain no one will ever have to suffer through the same hell that you did." As he spoke these words, her gaze softened, as if even in death, she somehow understood what he was doing, that she accepted her death as part of the grand plan.

He wanted to believe that, told himself it must be true. And then, to his amazement, she reached up again, cupping his cheek.

"Even so...I...still...I...

She coughed up blood.

_?_

Naruto lowered his ear to her lips, determined to remember her last words, to burn them into the back of his brain.

I...will...always...love...y-

And then it was over and she was gone. Her head lolled to the side, the life leaching from her eyes until finally, Naruto could no longer feel her in the Foce.

It was done, then.

He deactivated his blade and stood, willing himself to look at her corpse and feel_...nothing._ He could no longer afford a conscience, or a weakness, not if he was to do what must be done. He could serve only one master...and Hinata was not that master. He stood over her body until his tears dried. He resolved that he'd never shed another. Here and now, on this night, he'd had no choice but to destroy that which he most loved, to sacrifice it in his own ascension. Perhaps he would love again, he wondered, but never as he had loved her.

He would give her a burial with honour, befitting the life he had left behind. And then he would move on. Because it was required of him. Because it was his destiny.

"You've done well."

Naruto bit back a snarl as a cloaked figure detached itself from the shadows behind him. She'd been watching after all. Observing him the entire time, waiting to see if he went through with it. Stepping over the Hyuuga guardsmen and women as though they were just that; mere potholes in their plan, _Kurenai Yuhi_ tugged back her hood and surveyed the destruction her apprentice had wrought. Her once crimson orbs were now an odd and ungodly shade of saffron, rooting him where he stood. They'd always been this way he realized, he'd just never seen through the genjutsu.

Until now.

Naruto nodded his head in subservience.

"Thank you, master."

Kurenai smiled back at him, all sweetness and softness; as though she hadn't had any hand in this. And in a way, she hadn't. _He_ had been the one to kill Hinata, she'd merely goaded him into it, demanded that he take action and eliminate his weakness. And he had Such was their strained relationship between the two of them, between master and apprentice, hatred and passion; love and lust. He loved her, and yet he also hated her, all the same. Hinata's confession had driven a wedge between them, and he was suddenly certain that his mistress had a personal stake in wanting her former student dead. Now with that wedge gone, she was free to claim him as her own again.

"Was it difficult?" There was a flash of something-or suspicion?-in those golden eyes of hers, and it stoked the fire within him to new heights. She doubted him. Even now, after he'd killed for her, she still held back her teachings, still withheld her knowledge, still left him feeling inferior. It was always going to be like this, wasn't it?

"No." He fought down the urge to snap at her; the wound was raw, and her words only inflamed it. "I felt...nothing." But he had felt something; because now he understood it. The truth. Kurenai wasn't impartial as she had first claimed. _She was jealous._ She would always be jealous, never let him love another, so long as she lived. He almost laughed at the realization. He wasn't free. His chains had never been broken. And they never would be; so long as Kurenai held the reins. A cold, quiet fury nettled in the pit of Naruto's stomach. Hinata hadn't been his weakness; she never had.

Now he realized, more than ever, that the jedi were too dangerous for him to allow them to exist. They were to the Sith what Hinata was to him-an example of peace-of comfort-and therefore a temptation, an invitation to weakness. Hinata had not seen it. Kurenai did not see it. But Naruto saw it. And he knew what he must do. He must destroy the jedi utterly. But in order to do that...he must be free. Free from the temptation of easy answers, of an easy escape.

Free, not just from these shackles, but free to love as he chose. Free from his master as well. Free from his _true _weakness.

Unaware of the treachery stirring in her own disciple, Kurenai sashayed towards him, taking his hand and leading him out into the halls, then outside. They'd scarcely cleared the doors before she stook him. They made love roughly in the deathly silence of the Hyuuga Compound. She gasped as she stretched to accomodate him, his length sliding into her sheathe with rapturous delight. They fought and kissed and bit and snarled, fury made manifest in their love-making, uncaring of the marks they left upon one another.

Naruto delighted in it.

Her lips clashed against his roughly, and with passion, Naruto allowed himself to taste them one last time; to savor them. How ironic it was, that he only realized what his weakness truly was after he'd killed Hinata. _I should have tried to turn her,_ he realized. _I could have turned her. Could've made her see things my way._ Even here, in the dream, he felt a touch-just a touch!-of regret for the love he had lost, for killing someone he hadn't had to kill.

And then, just as he'd seen happen hundreds of times before...

_ Something snapped._

"You know, Master...you were right about something." he said as he pulled his length from her glistening slit, moving to embrace her, stradle her.

Kurenai raised her sweatsoaked gaze in confusion-frowned as Naruto crooked his hands into claws around her back and drew her close. He memorized every stitch of her, the curve of her body pressed against him, her golden eyes, flecked now with confusion. She had an inkling now, an idea of what he intended to do, but it was too little, too late.

"Naruto, what are you-

"I needed to eradicate my weakness." His teeth gleamed wolfishly in the moonlight. "And Hinata wasn't it._ You are."_

She bristled, again too late; he had her in his grasp.

"Na-

_"Forgive me, my love."_

This time there was no hesitation. Even as Kurenai sensed something was amiss, even as she readied her defenses, Naruto struck. A thousand bolts of white-hot agony ripped through her shields and tore them down in tatters, driving her to the floor in a heap of thrashing arms and legs. She screamed, struggled to repel the Force Lightning with her own power, but to no avail. Empowered by his new beliefs Naruto drove the Force into his master, driving it deep into her bones, refusing to release her even as his own attack seared into his skin. But he would heal, in time.

She would not.

Smoking and stinging from his own attack, Naruto flung her down to the ground. He left her there, naked, as he dressed himself, silently savoring her agony. He felt her brush at his mind in a final, desperate attempt to subvert him back to being her apprentice. He shrugged it off like a feather'stouch.

"Naruto...

"Stubborn." he growled. "It would have been so much easier were you to just give up and die." He raised his hands to finish her, but when she spoke, she rooted him.

"Traitor..." Kurenai fixed him with her gaze, piercing him, as though in the act of doing so she could somehow end his life. The slightest of smile curled at her charred lips, mocking him. "You...are not yet ready...to take on an apprentice..."

"That's where you're wrong." Naruto scowled; another deluge of lightning struck her in recompense for he temerity, sending her spasming in epileptic seizures. "I've been training one these last few months under your nose, all without your notice." He quirked an eyebrow. Some Sith Lord you turned out to be, hmm, _Darth Kurr?"_

Kurenai hissed out a fierce, angry breath as the spasms ceased.

"The sister...!"

"Yes, the sister." The Jonin replied amicably. "Jealousy is a funny thing. She's strong in the Force, just like Hinata, minus the infallible moral compass. She'll make a fine student, if I do say so myself. The last Hyuuga, under my watchful gaze...fitting, don't you think?"

"You...ungrateful...little...

"I will have many apprentices." Naruto continued, as if hadn't heard a word she'd said. "Hanabi will merely be the first, and chief amongst them. Now go to your rest, Master. Go to your rest and know your succession is secure in the new lord of the Sith."

There were no final words from Kurenai, she did not declare her love for him as Hinata had. And for that, Naruto was grateful; he didn't think he would've been able to handle it. She simply exhaled one, final time, and breathed no more. Naruto felt his heart wrench in his chest, and stifled a sob. He had done it, then. Culled weak from strong.

He set fire to the Hyuuga Compound and burned both their bodies within alongside all those Hyuuga he had slain; a fitting send-off for the first loves of his life. No one would realize...it was he who had orchestrated this until it was too late. Not Sakura, not Tsunade, not even his friends. They would stew in their ignorance until it was too late; by the time they realized what he intended, he would seize control of the nation and then, the planet itself; he would have peace. He would have order. For he was Sith.

The Force moved in him then, revealing at log last the name he was destined to take. An amalgamation of his own name and that of Kurama's, long since merged with him.

_"Karr."_ he said to the fires, raising his hands in unspoken benediction. "My sith name is Karr."

* * *

_Karr._

Naruto woke from the dream, frowning. Because it was just that; a dream. He no longer feared them, just as he knew they held no power over him. That had been years ago. Now, he was so close to accomplishing that which he strove for, to realizing his goal.

So very close.

Kurenai was no longer with him now, but her lessons still served him well to this day. If he hadn't killed her, he'd never have been free. Free to love. Free to be happy. Free to raise a family, and create a nation of fierce Sith warriors to rule over the galaxy for generations to come. His family was not his weakness because they accepted him; accepted the Sith mantle just as he did. That was what made them strong. Oh, there were still times in which he thought of his past, wondered if things could have been different.

But the past was the past. Nothing could change it. No matter how much the dregs of his humanity might want to.

He shrugged off the sheets, wincing as the morning rays struck his eyes. Morning had come. It was time. Tonight the celebration would be thrown but before that, a new delegation of Jedi were set to arrive, supposedly with the information he sought to open the Oubliette of Celeste Morne. Then, and only then once she was free would his plan be launched. He had a few hours yet to make the final preparations, he reminded himself as he rose from his cot and dressed, even so...the anticipation did abate in the slightest.

Today would change everything.

"My lord?"

Naruto shook his head, clearing the last of the cobwebs from his eyes. He found himself facing a bronze-skinned Iridonian zabrak, her body wrapped in light vestments, her jade eyes slightly widened at the sight of the shirtless sith lord. Naruto didn't fault her for gawping, years of lightsaber training had added a fine layer of muscle to his once lean physique. Karr permitted himself a slight smile as he donned his tunic and robes, he'd never admit it aloud, but he secretly relished this attention.

"Is there a problem, Kass?"

Kass Tod was one of the fifty few survivors that had withstood yesterday's purge, and one Karr had long since had an eye on. She'd been captured and converted to his way of thinking shortly after her master made an ill-fated attempt on his life-such a pity about that-and in killing her master, he'd seduced her to the Dark Side, proving its superiority over the light. That she had suvived his tests with only a few superficial wounds said much for her potential.

_"Kass."_ Naruto repeated, more forcibly this time.

The zabrak sputtered a moment longer before regaining her composure.

"Lady Hanabi as returned, as per your instruction. She also wishes to report that another Jedi envoy will arrive shortly." Naruto didn't have to ask how Kass knew this; his first and foremost apprentice had been tasked with observing the Jedi movements for the last three months. It was simply basic knowledge. The Last Hyuuga was well-trained in the subtle nuances of deception and subterfuge; add to that, the shinobi techniques to _henge _or disguise onseself, and you had the perfect infiltrator. Foolish Jedi, they weren't even remotely aware that they had a spy in their midst.

"Good, good." He found himself nodding, rising to meet her. "I'll greet her at the landing pad."

Kass fidgeted nervously at his approach; it didn't take Naruto long to realize why she'd flinched. He could feel a dark prescence approaching, intruding upon his solace like a heavy stone.

"Actually," Kass began. "She-

_"I'm already here."_

Karr stifled a snicker as Hanabi Hyuuga roughly nudged the younger woman aside and stepped into the bedroom. She had not been present at his culling of the apprentices, and with good reason. She alone was above reproach, he knew full well his first student had the skills to succeed him when the time came. In many ways she resembled her deceased sister; dark, midnight tresses framing eyes of lavender and pearl, but that was where the resemblance ended. She'd grown past Hinata-in more ways than one-stepping out her dead sister's shadow with each year until she could truly be considered her own person.

Hanabi strode into the room with slow confident strides, arrogant where her sister had been meek. A saberstaff_-her weapon of preferred choice-_hung at her back, rocking with each undulating movement of her full hips, swaying with every step. There was a hunger in her gaze as she saw him, a burning desire stoked by ninety days of not being by his side. Her tongue flitted between those full lips teasingly. And then she saw Kass. Her eyes flicked to zabrakina, then to Naruto, and back again, in clear dismissal.

"Leave us." she commanded imperiously.

Kass bristled, her eyes flashing a dangerous shade of yellow.

"I don't take orders from you."

"Oh?" The Hyuuga heiress bristled, stepping up to the shorter woman. "Would you rather I throttle and throw you out of the room myself-

"Ladies." Naruto uttered one word, but that word was laid with such anger that both women were taken aback.

"We'll talk later, Kass." he promised. "I expect you to keep up your Juyo form."

"Yes, master." The zabrak performed a bow and with a lingering, scathing glare at Hanabi, left the room.

Hanabi pouted.

"That was rude." Naruto said without preamble as the door closed behind them. "Did you have to do that?"

"I've been gone for three months, and _this_ is how you welcome me back?" She draped both arms round his neck. "Do you have any idea how _fucking horny_ I am?" Aaaah, yes. There was another sharp contrast. Hanabi had a mouth on her. And she liked to use it. In more ways than one.

"Well, I just woke up, so-mmph."

His words were cut short as Hanabi clossed the distane and pressed her lips against his. Lips so different from his own; softer, as soft as rose petals, fuller, holding him in thrall at very first brush. Naruto pulled back in rapture, marveling, and then he went in again...marveled anew at the decadence of her...then again, and this time, moaning, she opened for him.

Her tongue rolled against his, bringing with it the tastes of summer: berries dipped in cream, newly blooming roses and sultry midnights. He dipped lower still, face brushing against hers and she came alive in his arms; lurching up from the bed to meet him, wrapping her arms round his neck with a planitive cry. As focused on her as he was, he was able to follow her lead. When her tongue thrust, he knew to meet it. When her tongue retreated, he knew to chase it. He relished every new experience, growling with a sudden desire for more. More..._everything._

Her fingers slicked through his hair, decadent sensations dancing over his scalp, tickling skin that had never before been touched by another's hands.

"Up." A demand.

When she failed to immediately respond, Naruto cupped her bottom and lifted her, forcing her to straddle him, settle her weight against him. And oh, sweet heavens, _yes, _that was exactly what he'd needed. Pleasure rocketed through him, a beautiful sort of torture. She moaned into his mouth, her nails sinking into his scalp, as if to hold him in place. As if she worried he would try to get away. Never would he do such a thing. He was lost, tied only to the woman in his lap and glad for it. Except...

Except the new position was no longer the blessing he'd thought. He ached. Needed her. Now.

"Clothes." She hissed between kisses. "Off. Now."

"Off...?" Naruto asked, leaving the moniker unspoken.

"Off, please." she pined, her voice pitching into a sultry purr as she pulled at his clothes. "Master..."

Hearing his name on her lips, uttered so breathlessly, filled him with a sense of possession. _Mine._ And still, he held himself back, taking her in, allowing his desire to reach a feverish pitch. He observed every curve that was her body, stretched taught in desire beneath

Her breasts smashed against his chest, causing a brand-new ache. He wanted to feel her against him, skin to skin, no barriers. He released her long enough to rip his coat down the middle and jerk his arms free of the fabric, allowing what was left to flutter to the floor. He thought to do the same to Hanabi's garments; indeed, his fingers tightened around the hem of her shirt before he could think to stop them and began tearing free the fabric, to Hanabi's delight.

"God, I missed this." She moaned as his lips found her neck, kissing it delicately. "Never send me away again, alright?"

Naruto had no words for that; he couldn't have found them even if he tried. Instead, he nodded.

He released one hand from captivity to lift the hem of her shirt. She raised her arms and took her lips from his, allowing him to pull the remainder of the garment the rest of the way over her head. Hanabi's skin was a mesmerizing shade of alabaster and his a lighter tan; it was such a delicious contrast, inflaming the spark of desire to yet another feverish degree.

She was beautiful. Oh, was she beautiful.

Naruto was shaking as he cupped her breasts, marveling that they could be so heavy and yet so soft. He was struck by the sudden urge to kiss them. He acted upon that urge. Hanabi arched her back with a surprised gasp and his mind fogged with more of the glorious pleasure as he dipped down and kissed one side of her, then the other. In response she lifted her knees and grabbed him, dragging him to the bed-to her-and settled against him, then her lips were clashing agains this yet again. The exquisite pleasure-pain of the sensation had him sucking in a breath.

"More." She begged between kisses; gone was the haughty empress of this afternoon, in her place was a young woman begging for affection. Affection he would gladly give.

He cupped her breast, paused, waiting for her reaction. She moaned at the pleasure, thrilling him. His hand began to burn, burn so deliciously hotter than the rest of him as he kneaded her. _Care,_ he cautioned himself, _take care..._

Another moan left her.

_Yessss. More._

"Your skin is like fire." she said on a moan. "More, Master! More-

A soft chime interrupted their passion.

Naruto groaned.

_"Sithspit."_

"That would be the jedi, wouldn't it?" Hanabi snarled.

"They're early." the words were barely a hiss.

"I swear to kami, if you get off me-

Too late, Naruto rolled off of her, graving her with the lightest kiss.

"I'll just be a moment." he promised, dragging his cloak and vestments on.

"Don't you dare!"

Wham!

The door slammed shut behind him.

"Great," she muttered. "Now I'm wet _and_ horny...

* * *

Several minutes later, Darth Karr watched the shuttle descend from orbit, feigning detached interest. He could sense the jedi within, but their prescence remained masked by the hull. Who had the council sent this time he wondered? Surely they must've learned from their last mistake: One simply did not send women to a sith lord's compound without expecting to sample the local_...delicacies._ Imagine his surprise then, when Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker stepped off the ramp.

Interesting.

Perhaos the Jedi had learned their lesson after all.

"Greetings, master jedi." He incilined his head minutely. "I welcome you to my planet."

Skywalker looked like he didn't know what to make of this greeting. His master's reaction was a great deal more reserved.

Kenobi favored the grounds with a glance, the brooding stormclouds overhead, rising around them to blot out the sun. He seemed to sense the host of Darksiders only feet away inside the complex and Karr took certain perverse pleasures in seeing his discomfort firsthand. _That's right,_ he gloated._ I don't need them to deal with the two of you. I can more than handle you myself._

"Please," Naruto extended his hand in invitation. "Come inside. I give you my word you will not be harmed."

"I'd rather conduct negotiations outside, if you don't mind."

"Very well." Inwardly, Karr cursed. Kenobi knew better than

"Amusing." Karr contemplated as he beheld Kenobi and Skywalker. "It seems the jedi are nothing if not dogged in their persistence. I presume you have it, then?" He spoke not of them; rather, the item contained sure to be contained within their transport.

"We have nothing for you." Anakin replied, his sword hand twitching toward his lighstber.

"Be mindful of your feelings Anakin," Obi-Wan warned. "they betray you."

"And they betray _you,_ master Kenobi." Karr hissed, pouncing upon the opportunity.

"What?"

"You claim not to love, and yet, you have loved." Naruto gloated in the knowledge, in the hypocrisy that the jedi continued to live. "You continue to love." For all his claimed impassivity, the Jedi Knight was like an open book when opened to the Force. "Siri Tachi, I believe her name is?"

Anakin's eyes bulged so large Karr was certain they'd fall out of his head.

"Master?"

"It's nothing!" Obi-Wan answered, seemingly unfazed, but Karr delighted in the unsease he felt in the Force.

"And you, young Skywalker, you...baffle me. You fear for you mother, for your visions, that they might ring true. You wish to see her, to see her, to ensure her safety, and yet the council prevents it. And there is more, I think. You pine strongly for someone, someone you have not seen for ten years now, a woman you fear may never lover you." Karr sighed, his features drawing taut with dissapointment. "Poor, poor disillusioned little jedi. Shunning the very thing that gives you strength, strength you could use to defeat me. But that is not why we are here honorable jedi, you are here to give me what I want, and in return, I shall bid you welcome to the festivities."

Anakin, flush with anger, opened his mouth to reply, but his master beat him to the punch.

"I'm afraid we'll have to decline." Kenobi replied.

"On what grounds?"

"On the grounds that you surrender our comrades to us."

"Ah, this again?" Naruto felt a touch of indignation at the jedi's stubborn insistence. "You never learn, do you?"

Twin lightsabers ignited in his hands, each a wrathful line of crimson.

"Very well, jedi." He beckoned, snapping off a salute with each blade. "I will surrender**...if you can force me to kneel!"**

He blurred forward with a hiss, inserting himself between master and padawan as effortlesly as only a sith lord could. His blades flashed once twice, thrice, and then there was only the heat of the battle, a fierce, flighty furious heat that leapt from his fingertips; the sith lightning driving Kenobi back under the harsh deluge. Karr whirled on Anakin before the padawan could think to intervene, separating student from master. Great blow after great blow battered the padawan backward, forcing him from his aggressive Ataru form and into a desperate defense.

"I sense great fear in you, Skywalker." Karr prodded as he pressed the attack, never pausing, never relenting, even for a moment. "You have hate, you have _anger_ but you don't use them." He stepped forward and into Anakin's inner circle, batting the youth's lightsaber aside with his free hand; the cortosis laced gauntlet deflecting the attack, causing Anakin's blade to spark and sputter. "Why is that, I wonder? You hate me, and yet I sense you fear to use this very emotion. Come!" he goaded, lips twisting into a sneer. "Fight me! Destroy me! Put me out of my misery!"

"Shu up!"

With that young Skywalker took the offensive, his blue blade a blur of the Ataru form, the force flowing from him like an open river. Karr found himself on the back foot, startled, both by the boy and his abrupt descent into ferocity. By the Force! He hadn't been expecting this. The padawan's fury was almost the equal of his own; almost, but not quite. Three sequences in he found Anakin's furious rhythym and matched it with one the boy wasn't able to handle, descending into the maddening frenzy taught to him by Kurenai. Juyo.

"Impressive." Karr snarled as he deflected a hard strike at his leg. "Most impressive! But you are not a jedi yet, Skywalker!"

He thrust a saber at the boy's stomach and forced a block; distracting him, diverting his attention. It was enough. His hate surged upwards from his chest and into his arms, into his fingers, lightning licked at fingertips; a dozen black bolts promising pain. Even as Anakin registered them he found himself struck; driven from his feet and across the landing pad by the full force of the storm. Kenobi, having just found his footing, watched helplessly as his padawan fell, as his body was struck by bolt after bolt, his bearded face twisting in pain.

He recalled his blade to him with the Force, and Naruto strode to greet him, matching him blow for blow.

"Master Kenobi, you dissapoint me." He smiled. "Surely you can do better!"

Abandoning all pretense at grace, Obi-Wan lunged forward. Karr was waiting.

Riposting sharply, dashing the blade from Kenobi's hand, forcing it to his throat, holding the saber mere inches from his jugular.

"I won't kill you, master jedi." he announced, extinguishing the blade and clipping it to his belt.. "Doing so would cast a slight pall on things, wouldn't you think?"

"For what?"

Karr laughed; it was a deep, throaty sound.

"Why, for the festivities of course!"

Then he struck down, hard...

_..and Obi-Wan Kenobi knew only blackness._

* * *

**A/N: And there you have it! A lemon with Kurenai and a lime with Hanabi! We see just what the devil happened to Hinata and Kurenai, and after all that, can you really blame Naruto? We also see his new mindset, he wants to create peace and order, much like Jacen did...before he screwed everything up. One can only wonder if Naruto will succeed where Caedus is doomed to fail, hmm? It was a fun chapter to write though, this one! Lots of badassery all around and we finally get to delve into the big bash I've been planning. Aurra Sing is lurking, and she's out for blood. This cannot possibly end well, especially now that Naruto not only has Shaak Ti captive, but Obi-Wan and Skywalker as well! DUN-DUN-DUN!**

**On another note...**

**WE VENTURE INTO EPISODE II TERRITORY SOON! Expect things to be a helluva lot different with Karr meddling where he shouldn't. God, I almost feel bad for Dooku...**

**Continue to send your votes and your opinions in! I enjoy them! They're giving me all kinds of ideas! And be sure to stay tuned for more chapters! I plan to continue this story alongside the rest of my works in tandem. I want to at least finish these two before taking on another. So...hope ya enjoyed!**

**And of course, in the immortal words of Darth Vader**

**...REVIEW! It is your destiny! **

**R&R! =D**


	8. Ebb and Flow

**A/N: MWAHAHAHA! I return! It's been a terribly long time since I last touched this story, and after that last chapter -which was basically a filler- I'm proud to say that we are finally back on track! As are my plans for moving. I just laid carpet in two rooms, all that's left is to clear out a few more things, then the wedding, and I'll officially be leaving Atglen! Its rather bittersweet, seeing as I have spent all twenty-three years of my life here, but in the same vein, I think its high time for change. And on another note...we finally see what the devil Naruto is up to...**

**...prepare thyself for the next chapter! Onward! It's a long one! We see Celeste Morne-at long last!-in this chapter!**

_"Evil is such a subjective term, wouldn't you agree, Skywalker? I prefer to think of myself as...necessarily cruel."_

_~Darth Karr._

**Flow**

Pain and suffering where all Anakin Skywalker knew in his dreams. They tormented him, harassed him, without end. But this time they were different. As before, he watched his mother suffer, helpless to do anything at all, helpless; like a young boy, powerless to prevent her untimely end. But this time the dreams changed. Someone strode amidst his nightmares; a man with golden eyes, his features hidden behind a cowl blacker than the night itself. He bore a crimson sabre in hand, and with that saber, cut the nightmares down, one by one. Anakin half-expected the dream to plunge back into a nightmare, but no; In this dream, the goldeneyed man executed all those who sought to hurt his mother with swift, ruthless precision, sparing no one.

Those eerie yellow orbs burned like a brand in the black, cutting down everyone and everything until at last, all the phantoms were slain. Skywalker watched, mystified as the spectre in black extiniguished his lightsaber and clipped it to his belt, then extended a hand in offering to his mother. She gazed up at him for a long, terrifying moment and then slowly, tentatively, reached for him. Anakin felt relief blossom in the pit of his gut, a nameless sensation of joy and exultation as the powerful stranger drew her into the folds of his cloak and ushered her toward his vehickle. His mother's safety assured, the dream began to fade, its surfaces rippling like water, vanishing like mist as the young padawan looked on.

Just when Anakin thought he might finally wake from this nightmare-turned-peaceful-slumber, a cold hand closed around him, fingers like ice dragging him back under. His mother was gone to safety, but the dark man was not. He remained, standing there, still as a god, silent and brooding.

And then they were alone.

Even as the young padawan tried in vain to recognize this unknown spectre, even as he struggled through the mire of his dreams to reach him, he realized the black wraith was aware. Staring at him. Expectant. Gloved hands tugged back the hood to reveal the whiskered visage of Darth Karr; his lips upturned in a slight sneer.

"Nightmares again, _Vader?"_ he said, as though he too were aware this was just that, a dream. "I would've thought an all-powerful _sith_ like yourself would've been past such things by now." Sith? That wasn't right. That couldn't be right. He was a Jedi! His name was Anakin! Not Vader! No! This wasn't right! Anakin shook his head, desperately trying to wake from this nightmare, but to no avail. Karr laughed at his defiance, and stalked forward, lightsabers like twin bars of fire in, a pair rippling red lines searing against the black.

"Come." He beckoned, mocking him. "Use your anger! Strike me down!"

Anakin activated his own saber on instinct and stepped forward to meet the Sith lord-

**-and froze.**

Where once there had been a blazing blue blade, there was now only a sinister shade of scarlet. _This isn't real,_ he told himself. _It's just a dream._ But it felt so real. Terribly, hauntingly real, as if he were peering into the eyes of the future, of an event that had not yet come to pass. And the deeper he peered, the weaker he felt. His limbs felt heavy-deadened by some unseen weight, forcing him to look down, hazard a glance at himself, for fear of what might be wrong. It was the worst thing he could have done. In place of his legs and arms were mechanical limbs, wreathed in a suit of black armor. A dull, deafening respirator drove his lungs onward in deep breathes that he could not bring himself to stop and he suddenly realized he was wearing a helmet, that god-awful helmet...

"No!" He gasped, his voice hollow and hoarse. "What is this?! What have you done?!"

_"I haven't done anything." _Karr's dreamself laughed again; it was a deep, throaty sound_. "This is what you will become, without my interference."_

And still the spectre advanced. Drawing closer, coming nearer...

"A powerful Sith you will become in time, young Skywalker." the dream Karr became something else them, something horrible; a nameless terror Anakin daren't give name to; its words were deep and dark, laden with sinister intent. "Admit it. You want to give in. You want to feel the anger. You want to hate. Just look at what the Jedi have done to you...but we can't have that now, can we?"

The saber descended in a decapitating arc toward Anakin's head-

_Gah!_

He woke with a bolt of agony, drenched in cold sweat, gasping and panting for breath; that was around the time he realized he couldn't move. His lightsaber was gone, his arms and legs-blessedly made of flesh and not metal-remained shackled firmly to the floor, denying him all pretense of movement. His cell was sparse and absent of any and all furnishings, preventing him for using the Force to affect his escape. His first thought did not become one of terror as he'd expected, instead, he grudgingly admitted that Karr knew well what to do when it came to restraining Jedi.

Anakin tried to call upon the Force to calm himself, but to no avail-the last vestiges of the nightmare still assailed him. Even so, he struggled to rally himself. He would not show weakness in the face of Karr-

"Good morning, sunshine!

Speak of the devil!

"You'll have to forgive the restraints." Naruto's voice remarked from somewhere overhead. "It's not that I don't trust you..." There was a pause, deafening in its silence, broken only by Anakin's laboured breathing. "Ah, screw it." Part of the wall split and separated before Anakin's very eyes, revealing the Sith Lord in all his menacing glory. Remarkably he was unarmed save for his lightsaber, having forgone the cortosislaced armor and gauntlets, favoring a simple pair slacks and a black tunic, over which he'd thrown a raven-colored cape in their place. Were it not for the golden eyes and sinister aura he exuded in the force, Anakin would've thought him almost normal. But this man was not normal. He was Sith; he was evil, he was everything the Jedi opposed. He had to do something. Anything.

His eyes fell upon the lightsaber, hanging loosely on Karr's belt. If he could just reach it...

"I sincerely hope you don't find your accomodations too uncomfortable, padawan." The sith continued with a smile as he strode inside the bleak cell, exposing pearly white teeth. "You're not like Master Kenobi, or Shaak Ti, for that matter. There's a wildness in you." he chuckled, seemingly unaware of the slight, twitching motion his lightsaber made as Anakin exerted himself in the Force. That makes you unpredictable, m'boy. It makes you dangerous. Perhaps even-

Suddenly, and without warning the Darth gestured and Skywalker felt the invisible fingers of the force upon his windpipe. The padawan gagged, his preemptive strike to seize the lightsaber brutally counter-acted by the brutal vice upon his throat. Almost immediately, his vision began to blur as Karr tightened that hold, black spots speckling before his vision, his face beginning to purple, lungs shriveling as they were denied oxygen and air. His life flashed before

"I'm sorry, did I break your concentration?" he sneered. "Good. Do that again and I'll break your neck like a toothpick. Understand?"

Anakin managed a nod; and earned a smile in recompense for his temerity.

"And here I thought you were a slow learner."

Just like that, the vice around his throat fell away.

"Let's face it Skywalker_...I really don't trust you." _Karr approached him with languid strides, the wall slotting shut behind him. "Everything I see here_-everything I sense and feel-_tells me that you're going to grow up to be a major pain in my ass someday. And I...can't have that. See, I've got plans for this galaxy. Big plans. Plans that you and your little Jedi friends, don't factor into. As long you exist-so long as you continue to meddle in my affairs, there can never be peace. This galaxy can't have that, either. One war after another, cropping up every generation, all those lives being lost...we can't have that, you and I."

_Can't have that._

The nightmare came roaring back with startling clarity, and young Skywalker was suddenly, vividly aware that the Sith Lord didn't need his lightsaber to end him. Bound as he was now, Karr could kill him in a thousand different ways; choke him with the force, electrocution, or he could simply reach out and wrap both hands around his throat. And there was nothing he could do to stop him. He would be forced to lie there, helpless, left to die in endless unimaginable ways as the Sith Lord...

...ruffled his hair?

"So lets try to get along, neh?" Karr was smiling down at him in an almost brotherly way; a stark contrast to what Anakin had seen of him in the dream. "You tell me what I want to know about the Oubliette, and I'll let you speak with your mother. Sound fair?" He turned and paced away, leaving him with his thoughts. He didn't wait long.

Anakin bristled, the dregs of his nightmares coming to the fore once more.

"My mother?"

"Ah yes...your mother." Karr sighed, resuming his pacing. " Shmi Skywalker, I believe her name was? Left behind in slavery, all those years ago. Whatever became of her, I wonder?" Ignoring, the youth's disbelieving stare, the Darth continued. "Tell me then Anakin, how long has it been since you were knocked out, hmm?" That golden gaze met his own and held it, drew it toward a slit in the durasteel wall. "Its nearly evening now, is it not? In that time I paid a brief visit to that dustball of a planet you call your home in Tatooine."

No. No, that wasn't possible. Obi-Wan was the only living person who knew of his mother. Him, and Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. And Anakin knew neither would ever tell a Sith Lord about her...

"No need to doubt yourself," Naruto waved his concerns aside with a sigh, "Neither of them betrayed you." Despite all the darkness that enshrouded him, there was a ring of truth to the man's words.

Anakin exhaled in visible relief.

"You were right to fear for your mother," Karr continued. "I arrived just in time to prevent her from being carried off by a band of Sand People. She's quite safe with her husband, Cliegg and his family_-did you know he freed and married her, my boy?-_but I took some precautionary measures, just in case."

Anakin couldn't help it. He flinched; and Karr pounced on his moment of weakness.

"You know I'm telling the truth; but you're afraid. What if its a trap? What if I'm trying to manipulat you?" Karr hung over him a moment longer, then lurched back with a scoffing sigh. "Your paranoia betrays you. You'll not believe me, at least, not my words. I could explain my reasons for doing so, but you're not likely to believe a Sith, are you? So in the very _likely_ case that you still doubt me...I'll give you two minutes, free of charge my boy."

He tossed a small discus into Anakin's lap. The padawan frowned at it.

"Oh, of course." Karr chuckled to himself. "How rude of me." Ahem," he coughed into a fist. "Would you kindly give him back his arms?" Naruto spoke these words to someone outside their cell, and the force-cuffs holding Anakin's arms fell away, allowing the young jedi to free his arms. Slowly, tentatively, he reached for the disk and triggered it, eliciting a soft flare of blue, holographic light. Imagine his surpise when a small, hologram of Shmi Skywalker flared into life.

_"Annie?"_

"M-Mom?" Anakin felt his heart lurch into his throat. She was alright! She was safe!

_"Oh, Annie!"_ Her gasp-a spark of genuine delight-cut through him like a knife. _"It_ is _you! Look how you've grown!"_

"Are you safe?" The words poured out of him in an outwelling of relief, he could feel the tears of joy streaming down his face. "Are you alright?"

_"Yes,"_ She swallowed, visibly fighting her own tears. _"Yes son, I'm fine, thanks to that Jedi friend of yours. He called himself Karr. He gave me this to contact you with."_ She pantomined a gesture, holding up that same circular device as the one he held in his own hands, the discus that allowed her to commune with him across countless parsecs and even here, in this shieldied compound. He could feel Karr's atteintion on him, hanging over his head like a dark storm ready to unleash its fury, daring him to correct her.

Anakin didn't have the heart to tell his mother that she'd been saved by a Sith, not a Jedi. Let her believe what she wanted. All that mattered was that his mother was alright; safe and unharmed.

"I miss you, mom." He admitted.

_"I miss you too,_ _Annie."_ She replied, choked up. _"By the sands, I can't believe how big you've gotten! Your friend told me how much you missed me...I can't believe it's been ten years!"_

Karr said nothing in the background; he simply crossed his arms and appeared content to wait.

_"You're doing so well." _Shmi continued. _"Have you made any friends?_

Anakin scrubbed at his eyes with the back of his sleeve, determined not to let them show any longer than he had to.

"Of course I have...

Shmi might have said more, but Naruto chose that very moment to lean over him and toward the discus.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Skywalker," he began in a kindly, cultured voice that didn't sound a thing like his true self, "But the Council has requested the presence of Skywalker and myself for a debriefing." He allowed his smile to grow, blooming with a warmth he didn't feel. "Perhaps we should continue this discussion at a later date?"

_"I...of course."_ Shmi blinked, her holographic eyes fluttering open and shut then open again in surprise. _"I wasn't aware you were there, Master Karr."_

"We won't be but a moment." Naruto offered a genteel, almost fatherly smile. "I'll allow you to say your goodbyes."

Anakin opened his mouth to offer a protest, to say that he wasn't done yet, but no sound emerged. It was as if he'd lost all ability to speak, to communicate at all. Karr continued to smile, and as he looked on, the Jedi-to-be could actually feel the man in the Force, feel those invisible hands on his throat and trachea, preventing him from uttering more than was necessary. Numb, he could barely bring himself to bid his mother farewell and renew his promise to contact her at the next opportunity.

_"Be strong, Annie."_ His mother blew him a goodbye kiss and Anakin felt his heart shatter into a thousand pieces. "I_ know your concerned but don't worry about me. I'm fine here. Really, I am. Promise me you'll become a splendid Jedi Knight, alright? I know you can do it."_

"I will, Mom."

The disk winked out and flew backwards, summoned into Karr's open hand. He placed it in one of the many pouches of his belt, his smile still fixed in place.

"There's your proof, son." The Darth's fingers patted where he had put the holodisk and gave a gentle squeeze. "Now...are we ready to talk business?" Anakin turned his head to regard the Darth, hoping to get some sort of read on him, on this sudden shift in his behavior. It didn't make sense, and yet...it was strange; for a moment he thought he sensed genuine compassion from the Sith Lord. Then it was gone, and those yellow eyes were peering at him dispassionatley once more. Golden and narrow eyes gazed at him quietly, coldy, assessing his measure, absorbing his worth.

"You mean about...

_"The Oubliette."_ Karr finished. "I'm going to search your shuttle after this discussion, lets be clear about that. I WILL find out one way or another. The difference is, if you tell me, I'll give you this disk, which will allow you to speak with your mother whenever you wish. It's quite untraceable, as I'm no doubt sure you'll discover. Your order will never be the wiser about this little betrayal of yours; I certainly won't be the one to show the world what you did." He leaned forward, intent. "Now. Tell. Me. Everything. Or you'll never speak to your mother again."

Anakin bristled, eyes narrowing at what he beheld as a threat.

"If you harm her-

"Spare me your threats." Karr waved his anger aside as if it were a feather's touch. "I've been perfectly civil with you thus far; I'd appreciate the same courtesy." He steepled his fingers, intent. "I am a patient man, my boy, but my patience has its limits. So I offer you this, my final concession before I use force; Tell me what I want to know, and I swear by the Force as my witness that no harm shall come to her so long as I live, from myself or otherwise."

Karr's words rang clear with truth, even mired in the Dark Side as he was, Anakin could sense this. He sat there, torn between concern for his mother and loyalty to the Jedi Order. Eventually, the former won out. So he told him. In halting tones, Anakin Skywalker explained little he knew of the mysterious Jebble Box and what it contained, of how he believed it would be opened.

When he had finished, Karr grasped him by the shoulders and peered deep into his eyes, into the very depths of his soul.

"I believe you."

Anakin barely even noticed it when the Sith released him and stepped back, leaning southward to prop himself against the wall. He didn't see his eyes drift shut, didn't notice his attention drift inward. He didn't care. It stung, it burned, to know that he had betrayed his order-however briefly-just because this man had rescued his mother, given him the chance to speak with her. It was tearing him apart.

"What have I done?"

"You've done the right thing." Karr murmurred, tossing him the discus. "And I'm nothing if not a man of my word; I won't breathe a word to the Council about our agreement."

Somehow, that didn't make Anakin feel any better.

* * *

_(Parsecs away on Coruscant...)_

Supreme Chancellor Palpatine felt it; a subtle shift in the Force surrounding Anakin Skywalker. Not a significant one, but a change had taken place nonetheless. Frowning, he risked a glance through the lens of the Dark Side, determined to find its cause. What he found elicited a small, angry hiss. The quagmire of emotion that usually ensorcelled the young padawan, had been suddenly and inexplicably quelled. Sidious suddenly feared that all the influence he'd culminated over the last ten years was lost, or at least reduced by a sizeable amount.

He stubbornly resisted the urge to rise from his chair and pace; it would not do for anyone to see him discomforted so.

The Jedi Council had "forgotten" to inform him that they were sending Master Kenobi and his Padawa to Ninjato, he'd only learnt it from Skywalker, and even then, shortly before the boy's departure. There could be no doubt as to who the perpetrator was; who was behind this sudden calming of young Skywalker. There was hardness to him now, a cooling of his emotions that suggested he wasn't likely to ever completely trust in any one ever again. This ruined everything. Everything.

_Curse you, Karr!_

The secret sith lord grimaced, steepling his bony fingers together, contemplating. He knew that his alliance with Lord Karr was tentative at even the best of times, but the self-proclaimed Darth seemed to growing more and more bold as of late. Not that it mattered. The Clone Wars would soon begin, and then he would no longer have any need for their little dalliances. The Jedi would think Karr was this secret Sith Lord in hiding, once he was removed from the equation, he, Sidious, would be free to move as he pleased. But these next few months were pivotal. Crucial. Karr's fleet continued to expand at an alarming rate, more and more beings were content to flock to his side and the order he promised.

Sidious couldn't have that. Not with all those apprentices. Yes-he'd be a fool to confront him on his home turf; which was exactly why he'd forbade Dooku from taking any action against him. The tenuous peace between him and Karr need only last a few months more, but if something were to upset it before then...

_"You would be wise not to anger me, old man."_

Sidious shuddered at the old memory of when they'd first met, first enacted their little truce. Karr was a young sith lord, in the prime of life. The same could not be said of him. In a direct conflict, the younger warrior would overpower him. Palplatine knew he had to be extreme in his caution, careful in his deliberations. If Karr was stronger than _him,_ then pitting Dooku against him was a moot point; he was probably stronger than Lord Tyrannus as well. But for all his strengths, all of his power, Karr also had a weakness; a weakness Palpatine knew how to exploit. Yes, when the time came, he would unveil it, the one enemy he knew Karr would not be able to bring himself to face, let alone kill. The cloning chambers on Kamino had proved most useful in that regard...

_ Yes, all will be well,_ he reassured himself, leaning back into his plush leather seat. Karr had no way of knowing that his usefulness was swiftly coming to an end; that the risks of using him against the Jedi were slowly beginning to outweigh the rewards. The Darth's days were numbered. He just didn't know it yet.

All would be well...

* * *

When Karr finally opened his eyes an hour later, Anakin had finally cried himself dry. His chest heaved for a final time, gulping down air, and then, at long last, he felt a tentative calm settle over him. The Sith lord said nothing, but his body language radiated empathy as he took a seat beside him cross-legged, his face impassive. He said nothing. Did nothing. He...merely waited. Slowly, hestitantly, Anakin dared to raise his gaze, too confused to do anything else but meet those golden orbs, wondering what thoughts ran behind them. Finally, he could tolerate it no longer.

"My Master-

Naruto's smile grew another inch.

"Yes?"

"Not you!" The padawan barked back. "Where's _my_ master? Where is Obi-Wan?"

"Kenobi?" Karr chortled softly; it was not an unpleasant sound. "You'll find your master is quite alright; in fact, more than alright. I plan to visit him shortly and have a little...chat with him." Those words doused Anakin like icewater, drenching him in a cold sweat.

_Oh gods no._

"But I already told you-

-how to open the coffin." Naruto nodded. "I know you did, and I appreciate that. But as you said a Jedi is needed to open the coffin. And you, my dear boy, despite all appearances to the contrary, aren't quite there yet, so I'm afraid your master will have to do."

"You're evil." the words burst from Anakin's lips before he could stop them, spoken with less conviction than he felt. Would an evil man save an innocent? Karr didn't seem evil. Granted, he'd made him betray the order for a brief moment, but he sensed no satisfaction in the man standing before him. If anything Kar seemed...resolute. Determined. Whatever his main goal was, he was intent to have it realized, even should it cost him his very life in the proccess.

Naruto smiled; somehow, it didn't reach his eyes.

"Evil is such a subjective term, don't you think, Skywalker? I prefer to think of myself as necessarily cruel." The sith lord levered himself off the wall with a shrug. "I do whatever needs to be done in order to protect my family and friends, as I see fit. Would you not do the same?"

Anakin opened his mouth to reply, hesitated.

Karr chuckled.

"I thought so." abruptly he reached for his lightsaber and ignited it, searing a red line between the two of them. For a moment Anakin thought he was going to attack him, cut him down out of pure spite. But Karr didn't attack. He simply stood there, contemplating his blade, golden eyes staring into those scintilating shades of scarlet.

"You know, I never really thought of this blade as weapon." he mused aloud, and Anakin sensed these words, were directed unto him. "If anything, it's more of an extension of myself. It is my arm, my hand, my fist. A sword to cut down my enemies, a shield to defend what I deem to be precious." He raised his gaze and extinguished the saber, favoring him with a small smile as he did so. "Wouldn't you agree?"

Anakin blinked. He'd never thought of it that way. He was always losing his lightsaber, or worse, _breaking it._ Never once had he thought of it as an extension of himself. Oh, he was proud to have crafted such a weapon but until now he'd only ever thought of it as such. A weapon. Never a shield to protect his friends and family. It was a revelation, of sorts.

"Sometimes compromise is necessary, padawan. Even demanded. But enough of that! You won't be needing these anymore." With an errant gesture he unlocked Anakin's leg shackles. "It wouldn't do for me to shackle up such an important guest!" As Skywalker rubbed at his sore ankles the Sith rose, standing to his full towering height. "We'll have to get you a change of clothes for tonight," he said, indicating the charred state of the robes Anakin still wore, sullied and charred by the earlier deluge of sith lightning.

"Why are you doing this?"

"It is for the greater good." Naruto replied. "A principle the jedi often use to justify their actions, no?"

With a flare of his cape, the Dark Lord turned to depart.

"I'll leave you to dwell on what I've said." he said, stealing a glance over his shoulder. "A guard will be along shortly to escort you to more...comfortable quarters. Please don't try to escape. I expect to see you tonight at the fesitivities, my young friend. We have much to discuss, you and I."

Without another word he stepped outside, and the wall slotted shut behind him.

* * *

Ventress was there, waiting for him. Her violet eyes were narrow and scrutinizing, she could see he was perversely pleased with himself. Of course she could. He made no secret of his satisfaction, nor did he make any effort to hide it. That was what it meant to be Sith. To let your emotions strengthen you. It was what made them strong, and the Jedi weak. It was why deserved-needed-this iron handled rule of the Sith, of those who knew to weed out a threat _before _it took root, rather than allow it to spread its roots and take hold from within.

"Something on your mind, my dear?" he asked, knowing he'd kept her waiting.

"Jedi." she muttered blackly, pushing herself off the wall, bringing her porcelain-colored face mere inches from his own. "Their order is a fading light in the dark…corrupt and arrogant. Why do you tolerate them?"

"A fine question." Karr cupped her cheek, tracing his scarred fingers across her smooth skin in slow circles. "Tell me, why do you tolerate my other_...interests?"_ Her brow furrowed and he knew at once that _she_ knew of what, or rather, _whom_ he spoke; his frequent dalliances, apprentices, wives, and other lovers, all those to whom he devoted equal affection and passion.

"They have their uses." her response was frank, to the point, and more importantly, truthful. She understood and accepted that she was not his only apprentice, that he would always accept and train others, so long as they had some apptitude in the dark gift. "But I fail to see what this has to do with those Jedi you've captured? You may have turned one of their padawans, but the remainder are a threat!" She gnashed her teeth tight molars grinding in genuine anger, "We should eliminate them at once before they escape!"

"And what makes you think they will escape?" Karr had no qualms admitting that he'd purposely allowed Shaak Ti to wander the facility unguarded; because there was simply no need. He'd marked her earlier with both a tracker and the _flying thunder god_ seal. If she were to attempt any sabatoge or subterfuge, he would immediately be made aware of that and put a stop to it. Kenobi and Skywalker, were even less a threat than Asajj supposed them to be, Naruto wouldn't be releasing them from their cells until the festivies began a few hours from now.

"They are Jedi," the nightsister insisted emphatically, shaking herself free of his hands "It is in their nature."

"Can't fault them for that." Karr shrugged, and drew her closer to him. "But Skywalker...no, he won't try to escape. Not after the carrot I've dangled in front of him. Just as I know Master Kenobi won't try anything until I've had a word with him on our little...altercation." Ventress frowned, sullen at having missed the chance to combat the jedi. For a hairsbreadth, he thought she was going to argue that she should have been there with him; instead she sighed, her lithe shoulders sagging under some unseen weight. Karr grew impatient with her.

"If that's all you have to say then I have an appointment to keep with Master Kenobi." His inspection of the Jedi's shuttle had proven most fruitful; he now knew the secret opening the Oubliette. It could only be opened by the a Light-Side User. Anakin, with his wild emotions, hardly fit that bill, nor did he intend to use Master Ti as the catalyst to elicit Morne's awakening. That left Obi-Wan Kenobi. Logical, sensible jedi that he was, the Jedi Knight would surely agree to open it for him. And if not, well...Karr had other, less pleasant means of persuading him.

With that thought in mind, he began to move past Ventress, his shoulder brushing hers.

She surprised him then; whirling around to seize him by both wrists, slamming him into the wall with such force that the durasteel actually creaked in protest. Somewhere within one of the nearby cells, something gave a guttural cry of anger. Karr both ignored allowed Ventress her moment of dominance; he sensed no ill intentions from his protege. Only..._lust._ She gazed up at him with naked intents, knowing full well, he allowed her to pin him, to hold him fast. And then she smiled. It was not...an unpleasant thing, that smile; it spoke of anger and agressions and primal desire.

"You underestimate me, master," she purred.

"Is that so?" Karr arched an eyebrow in pleasant amusement; he thought he'd had Asajj's measure. Apparently not. Full of surprises, this one was.

_"Certainly."_

Ventress kissed him then-her mouth molding against his, her tongue licking at his lower lip, demanding entry. He turned in her grasp, pressing her against the wall even as she hitched up a leg, wrapped it around his waist in their bodies meshing as one. Karr groaned, his desire flaring like a flame in his chest. At that moment, Karr would've would've like nothing more than to take Ventress in full view of both guards and prisoners alike, uncaring for their reactions. Unfortunately, with so little time before the festivities, he couldn't afford to indulge his desires at the moment.

"Later," he murmurred, kissing her for a final time.

Asajj sighed and shrugged away from his touch with reluctance; no, she did not doubt him, but neither did she entirely believe him either. He paced away and she followed,

Naruto respected Ventress for that; his apprentice favored the heavy handed approach when it came to the enemy-the havoc she'd wrought on Rattatak certainly bespoke to that-she preferred to end a threat early, lest it become a problem in the future. But sometimes ones greatest enemy...could also become one's staunchest ally. Naruto saw himself in Skywalker; saw what he had once been. A naive and foolish boy, prone to anger, easily manipulated, bent to the whims of others. Poor, foolish child. Powerful and arrogant, yet easily deceived. He could see why Palpatine had his eye on him. But Karr had seen everything in his flow-walking, he knew full well what would happen if Palpatine got his hooks into Anakin.

Perhaps there was hope for him yet, not under Sidious's tutelage, but his own. After all, he hadn't much more use for the decrepit old man...

"You're fond of Skywalker, aren't you?" Ventress said abruptly, interrupting his musings with a sigh. "You truly think he won't try to escape after what you've done?" her words were mellifluous, but Karr could sense the undercurrent of anger stirring within them, demanding both an answer. She did not understand why they were waiting, why they had spared the Jedi, and she demanded to know why.

_My, aren't we cheeky today?_ Karr forcibly reminded himself that Ventress would become more and more moody as the months wore on, and that this was no fault of hers. Such things came with being pregnant after all and there was nothing he could do about that. No matter how much it might irk him.

"If by fond you mean intrigued," Karr exhaled in a long suffering sigh and took her by the hand, allowing her the honor of walking with him, side by side, "Then yes, I am rather fond of young Skywalker." They passed a number of guards in the walled complex, each of whom paused to salute the Sith Lord and his apprentice before returning to their duties. Karr permitted himself a small smile. This was only a taste of what was to come he reminded himself. Promise peace and stability, a government with one ruler-a leader!-who acted in the best interests of the people, without corruption, and this was what happened. Beings all over the galaxy flocked to your side.

They were given further proof of that once they exited the compound and stepped into the night. Starry skies hung overhead, not a cloud to be seen on this momentus evening. Karr was amused to see that a large crowd had gathered to meet them, thongs of wellwishers and supporters having turned out just to catch a glimpse of their benevolent yet reclusive ruler and one of his many disciples on tonight, this night of nights. He raised a hand in benediction and Ventress-to her credit- mirrored the movement, eliciting shouts of approval from the onlookers and nervous acknowledgement for the guards keeping them back.

Karr did not fault them for their anxiety; with so many beings gathered at the gates, an assasination attempt was very likely. He sensed nothing from the Force however, only a nagging sense of unease. Someone must have been watching them, but he was unable to determine whether it was for ill or nill. Whomever they were, they seemed very intent on something. Or someone. Him? Ventress? Were they being targeted? Even as he contemplated pursuit, the prescence faded into obscurity, leaving him alone. Karr fought the urge to break from the crowd and go after his unseen stalker, one glance at Asajj confirmed that the nightsister had likewise sensed something was amiss.

"Keep your guard up." he whispered beneath his breath; he wouldn't be able to bear it something happened to her, if anything happened to one of his many loves.

They passed through the gates of the manor to greetings of "Lord Karr" and "Lady Ventress" each taken in turn. Preparations had already been made in the wake of their abscence, and he offered a silent thanks to his head of security. Shikamaru certainly knew what he was doing. Many had turned out to see them, he noted with some surprise that his own shinobi forces were, surprisingly, in the minority tonight. Whether that bode ill or not remained to be seen. Still, to think so many had turned out tonight...

What did it matter if he claimed to be Sith? They certainly didn't seem to care!

Nearly ninety percent of the planet was well-fed and cared for, in a world with abundant natural resources and little to no polution. There was no violence. There was no crime. They wanted for naught. Granted, there were those ten percent dissidents outside the walled cities, those who'd saw fit to name him dictator-_tyrant-_merely for having overthrown and slain their feudal lords; those feeble, infirm, MISERLY old men who didn't care for anything else except their themselves and their full coffers.

But firm anger demanded a firmer response. He had no place for corruption in his regime.

"You should have killed Skywalker." Ventress said as soon as they were within the safety of the gates. "He is dangerous. Unpredictable."

"And I can end him, at any time." Naruto reminded her. "Or do you doubt my skills?" His response was laced with a hint of reproach, or warning; his patience was wearing thin, and Ventress was not to push it. She had no right to provoke him so simply because she bore one of his many heirs. Neither did Bariss, but that was beside the point.

"But you spared him for a reason." Asajj pressed. Karr exhaled in another, long-suffering sigh. He loved the nightsister dearly, he truly did, but her heavy-handed approach toward their enemies grated on his nerves. It was so much more delicious to sway one's enemy to their side and exploit them, rather than simply obliterate them for their temerity. Karr knew why he'd spared _Anakin_ but at the same time he found himself loathe to tell Ventress just why he'd bothered to keep Kenobi alive; he just had tue succinct feeling that he'd have use for the man someday, and that killing him would've been a monumental waste.

_Oh, very well._

"When I fought Anakin, I saw what he would become in the years to come," he admitted ruefully. "His every action, choice, decision, consequence. Had I left him alone, he would've turned into a shell of his former self without his mother, lover, or any children to call his own." Ventress favored him with a scathing look at that one-to which Karr, former jinchuuriki merely thumbed his chin. "I suppose you could say he reminded me of myself when I first started down the Dark Path all those years ago; when I saw what would."

He made no mention of what _else_ he had seen; nor what the Force had granted him view. But Karr had seen it. Seen it all. Everything. A bleak, fitful future spanning the decades. He'd seen war and strife and _pain_-so much agonizing pain as Darth Sidious, under the alias of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine manipulated the Senate to his secret agenda-plunging the galaxy, into the Clone Wars. The extermination of the Jedi, their once grand order reduced to all but a handful as the Sith ruled supreme under the flawed Rule of Two.

For more than two decades this so-called Empire would reign, only to erupt into strife and warfare once again as the Rebel Alliance challenged its stranglehold on the galaxy. Victory would eventually be theirs, and once more the Republic would return. So too, would the Jedi, ushering in a tentative era of peace and stability. For a time. Karr had seen countless intermittent conflicts spring up in his visions-each, of which, he took careful note of in his journals, though many of the lesser names and faces escaped him. He saw that, unchecked, the Skywalker line would persist for many generations, flourish even, in this new era of peace.

Until the next invasion.

Until the Yuuhzan Vong came, and tore the galaxy asunder. Karr still shuddered at the thought, though that future was many years distant. Any enemy that could not be felt nor sensed in the Force was truly an enemy to be feared; one to be eradicated at all costs. He'd have to do something about them when the time came. But to to that, he would need numbers, one even greater than the fleet he possessed now. His vision was not clear on the eventual fate of the Vong, but he knew that the galaxy must somehow best them, for he witnessed the rise of the Galactic Alliance...

...and the reemergence of a peculiar Darth named Lumiya.

She would cause much strife, culminating in the rise of Darth Caedus, formerly known as Jacen Solo. There would be many deaths in that future...including one Mara Jade Skywalker. That was as far as his foresight had yet to extend-perhaps it was the will of the Force that he not see any farther than was necessary?-but he knew thus; if Sidious_-Palpatine-_ever had his way, then there would be no stopping the chain of events that were to follow. The dominoes all started and fell with Skywalker, and what use Naruto-Karr!-made of him. He knew not why the Force granted him such supreme forsight of these events, nor why he knew with such certainty that they would come to pass, but he could guess; because he-and all those who studied under him and came after him-were destined to change them.

And change them he would.

He would have peace, not only in his lifetime, but in the next, and all the many years to come. It all began with Skywalker; hinged on the plans that he would put into action tonight, during the festivities.

"Begging your pardon master, but...why do you always take it upon yourself to play the hero?" the deadpann was barely concealed when he returned his attention to Ventress and with good reason; Karr knew Asajj held no love lost for any Jedi, having once believed their order to have abandoned her former master to die on Rattatak. He did not fault her the viewpoint, but he was quick to nip that anger in the bud all the same, lest it consume her and she lose sight of their grand goal.

"While the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power." He continued to pace away, allowing her to follow. "Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the annunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly fascinating about young Skywalker. Something dangerous...if left to flourish. So I took upon myself to plant those first seeds of doubt into his mind, to prove to him that we Sith are not all callous and cruel creatures as the Jedi would have him to believe. Rescuing his mother was just icing on the cake."

Ventress opened her mouth to spew another vitriolic retort but at that very moment a trooper approached them. The man snapped off a crisp, military salute and stood at firm attention until told otherwise. Karr silently congratulated the man for his obedience, and bid him be at ease.

"Yes, commander?"

"Begging your pardon m'lord, but the guests have begun to arrive."

"Very good." Karr nodded." Show them in."

"And sir...

"Yes?"

"Priestess Shion has requested an audience with you."

Karr gulped.

"I see...

Silently, a part of him dreaded the fesitivities. He knew his apprentices were loathe to share him with one another, but now came the matter of dealing with his wives. Temari, Kurotsuchi, Mei, Samui...though they were each far from fragile, he knew firsthand just what kind of damage an angry dark-sider could do. Just as he knew Any one of his four wives could easily bring this compound down on his head if he angered them enough, and kami only knew his prolonged abscences had to be straining their patience...

By the Force, this was going to be one helluva party. He was almsot _grateful_ that he was a mere shadow clone, that the original Karr was attending to a task of far greater importance...

* * *

_"Open it."_

Obi-Wan Kenobi clenched his jaw, refusing to move. How had he learned the secret, he wondered? He risked a glance at the Dark Lord, at the suited scientist he'd brought to investigate the relic, then back at Karr again In the end, he didn't have time to wonder; because the Sith shoved him.

_Hard._

Obi-Wan looked down to see what was within the millennia old coffin, only to gasp in surprise, hidden away in that old rusted crate was another sarcophagus. Its surface seemed to be made of black marble, gleaming even in the low light. Even though it hadn't been opened yet he could feel the power thrumming from within, nonexistent before but now so strong he could have sworn he was looking at something which appeared to be made out of the force itself.

Naruto seemed to notice this as well and a hard shove from the dark lord nearly caused him to fall into the opened box. It was the scientist who spoke as he fearfully backed away from the sliced open casket. "Lord Karr! I beg you; do not open the casket yet. You heard what the Snivvian said in the recording – exposure to the Talisman can cause some sentient beings to transform into Rakghouls."

Obi-Wan glanced at the man, then at Karr before sighing in defeat. He didn't know what a Rakghoul was, and honestly he wasn't sure if he wanted to know, but really, what choice, did he have? He took a deep, calming breath before placing his hands onto the smooth surface. The moment his slender fingers touched it the very surface gleamed and rippled, almost as if he had just placed her hands on the surface of still water. He felt the locking bolts release before their collective thuds reflected it, at least a dozen millennia old bolts slammed into position as they unlocked. A moment of silence passed before the sarcophagus clicked open, a hiss of steam and millennia old air released itself in the form of thick mist.

With a deep breath Obi-Wan gripped the opened door and pulled up, prepared for death if it awaited him. What was within the millennia old box was something which he had never expected. Within the legendary Jebble Box was the body of a woman, a human woman. Her skin was pale with long black hair done up in a long braid, covered with tight white cloth. She wore a bodice like suit, skin tight, with slender armoured shoulder pads and long black gloves stretching from her elbows to her hands, a loincloth hung from her waist with skin tight black leather pants and knee high black leather boots with silver clasps, a lightsaber hilt was latched to her black utility belt, telling Obi-Wan that whoever this was she was either a Jedi of a Sith.

There was one piece of jewelry on the woman's body, and compared to everything else she wore it looked gaudy. It was shaped like a scarab of some kind, latched around her slender neck, seemingly made of solid gold with a red ruby in its centre. Obi-Wan stared at it, positive that he felt something unnaturally off about this decorative peace.

"Stars, it's true."

A black gloved hand grabbed hsis houlder with enough force to bruise and threw him back, impacting hard against the concrete floor. A dozen clicks of armed blasters followed and Obi-WAN slowly raised his hands in surrender, deciding to wisely back away for now. He was roughly picked up, dragged back, and rebound against the durasteel pole.

"No more than I expected," the old man said, returning to his regal composure, well as regal as a man in an old spacesuit can get. "Stasis casket or not no one could survive four thousand years."

She was more than just a preserved corpse. There was life in the body, a brief pulse in the force itself which grew stronger and stronger until it just seemed to boil over. A sudden and laboured gasp brought attention back to the coffin as the human woman sat straight upright, gasping for air as if someone had tried to drown her in a lake. It was almost like she had just recently awoken from a dreadful nightmare.

"Zayne!" she half gasped, half screamed as she shot up, hand flying to grab Karr's right shoulder pad with a strong grip. The Dark Lord, not missing a beat held her steady as she continued to gasp for breath, leaning against his armoured chest as she slowly rose. She began to speak as she regained herself. "Have the Jedi come?"

She took one last deep breath before getting a good look at her supposed saviour. "Are you - ? Did you free me?"

Obi-Wan was only half listening to the conversation, using the distraction to begin using the force in one of the most subtle skills, with enough time he could pick and open the lock, all he needed was a few moments. A few moments he did not have, as Karr barked a harsh command, leveling a host of blasters upon him. Kenobi blanched, his attempt foiled, but already his attention lay elsewhere. By now the millennia old Jedi had been helped to her feet and was looking around, hand slowly reaching up to massage her temple. She had blue eyes, deep blue. "No, it's still there – I can feel – I can feel him."

"No!" her exclamation caught everyone off guard and everyone noticed it when her blue eyes contorted and bled until they were a bloody crimson. "No, you are still with me!"

Most of those present had already deduced that the young Jedi, millennium imprisoned Jedi, wasn't completely sane, but those within the chamber who were force-sensitive were able to deduce otherwise, something else was here, something old and vile. Obi-Wan was barely aware of the young woman muttering something under her breath-as if something was talking to her. She reached up with both hands and placed them over her ears, as if trying to block out a great noise.

"_How long? How long were we...was I...inside?_"

"Four thousand years," the suited scientist squeaked fearfully in response, raising his hands in an effort to calm her.

To the Shadow the words hit her like a jackhammer. Four thousand years? She had been locked away inside that sarcophagus...for four thousand years. The revelation was a shock to her, such a shock that her whole body seemed to go numb. Everyone she knew, everything she considered important was gone, no one she knew could possibly still live after such a long time. What about everything from her time? A million questions jumbled through her tired and weary mind.

Did the Republic still stand?

What about the Jedi?

What about the Mandalorians?

"Four thousand..."she repeated the words numbly.

Karness Muur was right in her face, raising a long bony finger, _"So much time wasted!"_

The questions spilled from her like an avalanche and the old man was just barely able to keep up with her. "What about the Covenant? Was it successful?"

The old man raised his hands up in an attempt to calm her. "I'm afraid I know nothing about a _Covenant_."

"Then what about the Rakghouls," she asked.

"Isolated and eventually wiped out on Taris." She breathed a sigh of relief at hearing that information, thankful that the disease those turned creatures carried was destroyed with them.

"And the Mandalorians, did the Mandalorians conquer the galaxy," she asked, with the same sharpness as before.

"No," he replied, and for a brief moment she felt hope flair in her chest, and also a little smug satisfaction when her poltergeist openly snarled in disgust.

"So the Republic still stands," she asked, hoping with all her might for a 'yes'. That hope wrapped around her like a blanket, soft and warm with the old man's next few words.

"Yes, the Republic still rules."

_"But not for long."_

She turned and looked at the figure in shock and disbelief. He was actually...quite handsome. His golden eyes glittered like honeysuckle, observing her with amusement. No, it was not possible. He was not Sith, he could not be. Sith were extinct, had been for millennia.

And yet...as she timidly reached out through the force to feel his presence she knew it was true. This man's presence was a cesspool of emotions, not all of them negative, nor were many of them positive, and all she gained from his thoughts of her was curiosity. Yet she felt darkness within him, ten times worse than anything she had ever felt in her lifetime.

_"Sith,"_ she muttered the name as if it were a curse, idly aware as Karness Muur said the same name with a kind of smug satisfaction. She ignored him and ignited her lightsaber, feeling comfort in the heat which emanated from the weapon. "I should have felt it sooner!"

She surged forward shrieking like a banshee, bringing her lightsaber down in a hard slash meant to cleave him in twine like a twige. Celeste dimly registed an unmistakable _snap-hiissss _before she saw the unknown Sith Lord bring up his own lightsaber to parry her strike. Morrne used the momentum to somersault over the Dark Lord's head and land on the ground with flawlless ease, bracing herself for the furious follow-up assault that was certain to come.

It never came.

The Dark Lord starred across at her, his golden eyes narrowed with thinly veiled amusement. To her utter disbelief and then dismal dismay-alongside Kenobi's- he extinguished his blade. Morne could only watch in awe as the crimson line shrank back into the shaft, as he reached down and claimed his second hilt, attaching it to the first. There came a furous snap-hiss before she realized his intent; Karr had joined both blades at their hilts, forming a sinister saberstaff. He twirled the deadly weapon once, forming a crimson wall between himself and the Jedi Shadow.

"I sense great anger within you, jedi." he purred."Come! Unleash it!"

Morne lunged at him, her blade skittering beneath his defense a splitsecond before he completed the swing. Too late, she felt the Muur Talisman stir at her throat. Karr peered down at the strange device in wonderment as though amazed to see it move.

"Perhaps this is the answer." Karr frowned, touching a hand to the strange edifice wrapped around her neck. It was cold to the touch, and yet, it felt alive somehow. As if had a pulse.

"How could something so small, wreak so much havoc?"

Beneath his words two things did happen; the first was that Morne lurched backward, her lids fluttering shut with a pained gasp. The second was that the talisman moved. There could be no other word for it; the metal necklace simply unwound itself from her neck and seized upon his hand.

Naruto grunted as the Muur Talisman closed around his wrist.

_"Mine!"_ The spirt hissed in his ear.

Naruto's eyes widened, bulged in surprise. He had time for one word before everything went black.

_"Sithspit." _

* * *

**A/N: And there you have it! Naruto, like Jacen, knows how to flow-walk, but to an extent hereito unseen. He's aware of all that will happen in the future, all the chaos, ware, and strife, and he's all but determined to change it. He has also seen the past, proving the fact that the Jedi DID wipe out the Uzumaki several decades before. And of course, we see a ton of Sith treachery and double crossery in this chapter. Karr isn't content to rule the galaxy under someone's thumb!**

**His alliance with Sidious is swiftly unraveling-what did you expect?-but we see that Palpatine has a hidden trump card...what could it be, I wonder? And of course... **

**Anakin take shis first tentative step toward the Dark Side! Lots of badassery all around and we finally get to delve into the big bash I've been planning. Aurra Sing is lurking and she's out for blood and then some. This cannot possibly end well, especially now that Naruto has finally freed Celeste Morne! And it seems the Muur Talisman has taken a liiking to him. Ohhh, this cannot possibly end well for the galaxy. But what of Morne? Will she turn to the Dark Side? What else could possibly happen...?!**

**On another note...**

**WE VENTURE INTO EPISODE II TERRITORY SOON! Expect things to be a helluva lot different with Karr meddling where he shouldn't. God, I almost feel bad for Dooku...**

**Continue to send your votes and your opinions in! I enjoy them! They're giving me all kinds of ideas! And be sure to stay tuned for more chapters! I plan to continue this story alongside the rest of my works in tandem. I want to at least finish these two before taking on another. So...hope ya enjoyed!**

**And of course, in the immortal words of Darth Vader**

**...REVIEW! It is your destiny! And of course, enjoy the preview!**

**(Preview)**

Karr cocked his head aside, regarding Sing and the assasins sent to end him.

"You've got nothing." the leader said. "Nothing but your bloody knives and your fancy karate gimmicks. We have blasters."

"No, what you have are clips, and the hope that when your guns are empty I'm no longer be standing, because if I am_...you'll all be dead before you've reloaded."_

_"Kill him!"_

Karr did nothing; he didn't even tense up as the hunters leveled their weapons.

**R&R! =D**


	9. Matters of Succession

**A/N: MWAHAHAHA! I return! It's been a terribly long time since I last touched this story, and after that last chapter -which was basically a filler- I'm proud to say that we are finally back on track! As are my plans for moving. I just laid carpet in two rooms, all that's left is to clear out a few more things, then the wedding, and I'll officially be leaving Atglen! Its rather bittersweet, seeing as I have spent all twenty-three years of my life here, but in the same vein, I think its high time for change. And on another note...we finally see what the devil Naruto is up to...**

**...prepare thyself for the next chapter! Onward! This one is a bit of a filler in the begining, showing what happened while Naruto tangled with Celeste Morne. Now before you groan, I promise, this is an actual chapter sweet at first, then...well, I won't spoil it for ya. Because, as you're about to see, dear reader an unexpectedand pleasant surprise awaits you...**

_"I find your lack of faith disturbing."_

_~Darth Karr._

**Matters of Succession**

_(Several minutes earlier...)_

Whilst the original Naruto tangled with the matter of Celeste Morne and the Muur Talisman, his clone found itself faced with a far more daunting task. Greeting the guests. As expected they came in droves, arriving with gifts in tow, tokens with which to honour him. He'd anticipated as much, and as such, prepared himself for it.

Then, the expected became the unexpected. A great many had come to enjoy the festivities on this sacred night, a great deal _more_ than had been expected, many of whom were unknown to him. The very air itself was charged with anticipation, everyone The kage bunshin would've liked nothing more than to stay out of sight and, but the boss had been adamant. Mingle, he'd said. _Associate._ Let the people know that you're there from beginning to end; that you're there not just for them, but for their friends and families as well.

And so, in spite of the vehement protestations of his honour guard-unaware they were guarding a mere doppleganger and not the genuine article-the clone waded through the crowds, forced to meet and greet them all exchanging handshakes , promises and the like. Eventually he made his way to lords Kazekage, Raikage and Tsuchikage...and while Karr was delighted to see his longtime friend and staunch ally Sabaku no Gaara to be holding up well under the strain of parenthood alongside Matsuri, well...

Suffice it to say Onoki was proving to be less than amiacable.

The man had never approved of his hostile takeover of the planet nearly a decade earlier, nor did he appreciate being reduced to mere figurehead now that the planet was firmly under Sith control. Darth though he might be, Karr knew he had to tread lightly were this one was concerned. He couldn't just execute him, as he'd done with Tsunade, after all. If another Kage were to "mysteriously dissapear overnight" the populace might grow suspicious of his actions. No, Naruto reminded himself, despite the hate he held for the old fool, he was of more use to him alive than he was dead.

For now.

"As I said before, I'm afraid I'll have to decline your offer, old man." Karr found himself masking his exasperation as he repeated the same statement to the Tsuchikage for what felt like the upteenthtime. "Kurotsuchi is quite adamant on this; she doesn't want to have children yet. I'm not going to force her into anything she doesn't want." He turned aside to make his point; this discussion was now closed. "Now, if I could direct you to the refreshments-"

"And when will she be willing?!" Onoki floated after him, following the Sith Lord even as tried to turn away. "We had an agreement, you whipper-snaper! I give you my grandaughter and you give me an heir!" Naruto bristled at the mention of that, and fought the urge to _Force-Choke_ Ononki within an inch of his life. Doing so just might kill him. The last ten years had not been kind to the old man: his visage was pock-marked with liver spots, there was an odd stutter to his speech that suggested he was beginning to lose the tennuous battle with old age and what little hair remained on his head after these ten years had begun to crease and fall out. Not to mention the now crippling back pain-once a minor annoyance-had become something a handicap, one which threatened to leave him bedridden for weeks at a time...

Now, Darth Karr considered himself a patient man, all things considered. He had learned to control his impulsive reckless streak over the last decade, all but suppressing the staggering stupidity of his youth. He was no longer Uzumaki Naruto, no longer that same brash, blabbering boy he'd been before. That boy no longer existed...and if by some miracle he still did, if by some chance, a fragment of Uzumaki Naruto still dwelled within him, still persisted despite all attempts to root it out...well, he'd long since learned to ignore that little voice in his head. It was whispering to him now, telling him to ignore the verbal slight, to let the comment roll away like a pebble at his foot, slip off his shoulders like water off a duck's back. Karr ignored that voice. He knew how to act, plot, manipulate and scheme to get what he wanted, and while he could've easily done any one of those things to make a fool of Onoki...the man was getting on his last nerve.

He had tolerated the old fool for at least an hour now, succeeding where many of his apprentices would've failed dismally. But even he had his limits. No grandfather should treat his grandaughter like breeding stock; as a mere pawn to elevate himself another rung up the social ladder. It disgusted Karr. Infuriated him.

"She'll be willing when she is willing." He let just a touch of killer intent suffuse his tone; the tiniest hint of warning, even _his _supernatural patiences had its limits. Apparently, Onoki's arrogance had none. To the Darth's sheer disbelief, the elder kage actually _spat_ at him; a wad of phlegm landed firmly upon his whiskered cheek and trickled down his chin.

There was a silence.

Naruto didn't even flinch, didn't even blink. He simply grabbed Onoki in the Force and crushed his windpipe. _Hard._ No one in the crowd recognized the dilemna; none saw Onoki's eyes bulge, his face beginning to purple as his lungs were denied life-giving oxygen. But the old man was too stubborn to simply admit defeat, he defiantly remained aloft even as the life was choked out of him. That suited Naruto just fine. Plausible deniability and whatnot. No one save Hanabi was near enough to intervene, and he knew all too well his enforcer's dislike of the Tsuchikage. Which made what he said next even more pleasing.

"You...little brat!" Onoki gurgled, his voice scarcely a whisper. "You have no right! You...cannot do this to me!"

"I find your lack of faith disturbing," Karr hissed, his voice barely heard over the din of the crowd. "Do you not trust me, lord Tsuchikage?" he shook the old man with the Force, rattling his decrepit body like a child's toy and taking perverse pleasure in the plain pain etched across the elder's visage. "Am I not a man of my word?" Still he continued, still he denied Onoki ozxygen. "Have I not left you and your lands intact when I've razed so many others to the ground as an example? Have I not spared you and your miserable little life at the request of your beloved grandaughter?" he pretended to considered the matter a moment-golden gaze narrowing intently, seeking, contemplating. "Perhaps it is time she finally succeeded you."

Onoki's face began to purple.

"You...

"Oh no, no, _no."_ Karr wagged a finger in reproach. "You should not talk back to your betters. It belittles you. Still, perhaps its high time I put you out of your misery."

Onoki's only reply was a rasping gurgle as the Darth relinquished his choke. He opened his mouth to spew another vitriolic retort, but Karr didn't give him the chance. Even as the Tsuchikage's lips parted, the Dark Lord of the Sith reached forward and gave his heart a soft, gentle squeeze with the Force. That was all it took. Onoki finally fell, his already chalk-white face draining of all semblance of color. It would've been so much easier to simply crush his heart and end his life, but that would've been merciful. Karr wasn't feeling merciful at the moment.

Karr bit back a laugh as a wave of silent approval washed over him; his gaze seeking, finding Hanabi's in the crowd. Every force-user on the premises knew what he was doing, but for those who lacked the sensitivity, it appeard that the old man had simply suffered a stroke. He feigned astonishment and shock as Onoki collapsed, catching him before he could sag to the floor. The stroke appeared to have paralyzed the entire left half of the Tsuchikage's body; he was trying to speak, but the words simply refused to come. He would never fly again, Karr realized, maybe never even walk. Once, in another life, as Uzumaki Naruto, such a thought would've saddened him. Now, as Darth Karr, he felt only a sick, twisted satisfaction.

"The old man isn't feeling well." Hanabi suddenly materialized beside him, her pearl eyes boring into the shadow guards at his side. "Please, escort him to the infirmary." As one the men saluted; to question Karr's chief enforcer was to dance with death itself.

"Yes, m'lady."

Naruto huffed as he watched his men carrying the Onoki out on a stretcher; maybe he'd get lucky and he really _would _die of that stroke. It would certainly save him the trouble.

The matter of succession had always been-and still was-a sticking point with the decrepit kage. Ever since his son, Kitsuchi, perished during the Fourth Shinobi War, the crotchety old geezer was adamant when it came to preserving his legacy. Sadly that task fell to Kurotsuchi, and while she herself was quite enamored with Naruto, and he, her, she had been very blunt the last time he'd asked. Kurotsuchi, as she had so brilliantly put it into words, didn't feel like: "having a kid suck on my tits" just yet. Naruto sympathized.

Everyone was scrambling to produce an heir for him, scrambling to have some claim to the man that ruled this world. It sickened Karr...and made him pity whomever his first-born was. They would have a monumental task ahead of them from the moment they were born. Once Bariss gave birth a few months from now, this nonsense would cease and he could put this bedlam to rest once and for all. But for nows he still had a part to play, and he would play it to perfection.

"I do believe Lord Tsuchikage won't be joining us for the rest of the evening." he said, addressing the crowd of onlookers. "Such a pity." He bowed his head in benediction. "Let us pray for his safe recovery." A murmurr of approval rippled through the throng as he looked on; once more, Karr was amazed at the ease with which they were manipulated. Murmurr a few kind words here and there, make a few generous donations, and they all tripped over themselves to please him. No one dared speak out against him, none thought to think or question the sudden circumstances of Onoki's stroke.

It was almost too easy.

"Brilliant." Hanabi whispered, her lips brushing his ear. "You'll have to teach me that, sometime."

"You're already a heart-breaker." he graced her with a light peck upon the cheek, one of their rare public displays of affection.

The last Hyuuga grinned.

"Flatterer."

"I try."

She stood on her tip-toes to kiss him them, her mouth gracing his with a gentleness Karr knew was feigned; if not for his sake than surely that of the guests milling about them.

"Never much liked him anyway." A low voice growled at their backs, those deep, baritone words shaking the space between the two of them like a thunderbolt. Hanabi rounded on the intruder with a hiss-infuriated both by the intrusion and the fact that she hadn't detected him until now.

"We didn't ask for your opinion."

"But it _is _welcomed." Naruto inclined his head in amused acknowledgement; unlike his apprentice, _he_ had sensed the Raikage's approach from afar and wasn't surprised by his prescence. He knew better than take any double-meaning away from the Ay's words, anyway. He was about as blunt as a turbolaser. That didn't make him any less dangerous than Onoki, however.

In contrast to the broken man Onoki now was, _Ay,_ had aged gracefully. He'd lost none of skill or stamina over the last decade; if anything, he'd grown even more agile in his old age. He wasn't quite at Karr's level in terms of sheer speed, and not many non-force users could hope to compete with him when his already godlike speed was enhanced by the Force, but A was close. Close enough to inflict severe -if not lethal- damage should the Sith Lord ever dare lower his guard in his prescence. Something Karr swore he'd never do.

"Samui's doing just fine, by the way." Naruto was more than happy to oblige, "I'm expecting her to give birth to my son sometime this August."

_After Barriss._ he added mentally. Once he had his firstborn, the matter of succession would be a foregone conclusion.

"That _is_ good news." Ay smiled, exposing pearly white teeth. "Have you thought of a name yet?"

"A few have come to mind," Karr bit back a smile of his own. The man had a single-mindedness that he almost envied, give him what he wanted and he'd stay out of the way. He was only thankful he'd finally given up on his fixations with Hanabi and her Byakugan. Sadly, Hanbi didn't share his opinion. He could feel her anger boiling over in the Force; and within good reason. Kumogakure -what little was left- represented everything she hated in the world. Pride. Arrogance. Stupidity.

"Need I remind-

She blinked in surprise, the words falling away as a guard stepped up to them. Karr beckoned him closer.

"Yes?"

"M'lord," the guard began stoically, "High Priestess Shion requests an audience with you. Immediately."

"Does she now?" Karr arched an eyebrow. "Tell her I'll be with her shortly."

The guard didn't budge.

"M'lord," he continued, visibly squirming in place as he spoke, "I've already told her that. Several times. She's been quite insistent for the last hour." At Karr's silence, he continued, his words little more than a whisper between the two of them. "Please don't make me go back to her alone, m'lord. She_...she scares me."_ It took all Karr had not to laugh outright at the man's sheer terror. Shion tended to have that effect on people. As did her visions. After all, she herself said he would die mere minutes after they'd first met. And where had that gone? He was still alive and well thank-you very much! It just went to show that the future was never set in stone; rather, it was ever-changing, always in flux, forever in motion.

It also made him wonder what part Shion would play in _his _future.

"M'lord?"

"Oh, very well." Karr made a show of irritation, when in reality, he was all but jumping at the chance to be rid of the political back and forth. Was it not enough that he guaranteed safety and protection to his people? Was it not enough that he had their best interests at heart? Apparently not. It did not help that he'd forgotten the Priestess had wanted to meet with him in the first place. Hours ago. Seemed she was running out of patience at long last. It was time to take his leave, then.

"Lord Raikage." Naruto began, taking his leave of the festivites with no small amount of relief, "I leave my enforcer to discuss the finer points of the treaty with you." There could be no missing the fire it; the fire blazing in Hanabi's gaze as he spoke those words. He was going to get it later. In her eyes, the Raikage still hadn't been forgiven for his persistent attemtps to take the Byakugan in the past. Karr could only pray that she didn't kill the poor man before he returned. He knew all too well the limits of her temper...

_You owe me for this._ She hissed at him, her thoughts trickling through their master-student bond. _Bigtime._

_I'll do whatever you want, tomorrow._ Karr promised, placating her. _The whole day._ _Satisfied?_

He received a flash of lust from his apprentice, images of the many things she intended to make him do during that day, and smirked despite himself. Such a...colorful imagination.

_Satisfied?_ he queried once more.

_Very, _she all but purred back.

And with his enforcer placated, Karr went to meet Shion.

He murmurred a few words in passing to Gaara and the other guests and slowly, gradually began to make himself one with the Force, obscuring his prescence to the point where only Hanabi would be able to sense him, as if he were a mere phantasm, not present in this world nor the next. This was only one of the many techniques he'd learned since attaining full mastery of his powers; the ability to flow-walk back and forward through all time itself, to mind-rub an individual of "uneccessary" memories, and even this, to become one with the Force in such a way that no jedi nor sith would be able to sense him.

So now that the latter had requested a private audience with him, he was taking every precaution. He had not seen Shion for awhile; there was no way of telling what she was planning.

"Is she alone?" Naruto inquired as his guard led him through the opulent corridors and away from the guests, nonplussed.

"No, sire." the man shook his head, his earlier distress dissipating in the prolonged prescence of the sith lord. "There's...someone else with her."

"Unarmed, I trust?"

"Y-Yessir. Erm, that is, I believe so, sir."

"Why the stutter, lieutenant?" Naruto exerted some pressure into his words, frowning at the man's avoidance of the subject. A small part of him found it humorours. A large part did not. If there was someone else with Shion in that room and they were armed...he daren't finish that thought.

"Is this person armed or aren't they, lieutenant?"

The man looked as though he wanted to melt into the floor. A very real possibility, when presented with Karr's scathing gaze.

"U-Unarmed." He managed at last. "She couldn't possibly have anything hidden away...she's much too small."

"Is that so?"

He received a gulp in reply.

Karr fought the urge to extend his senses in that direction; he knew Shion well enough to know she would detect his intrusion. While not overly sensitive in the Force itself, she was granted some level of foresight; both by her bloodline and the grand flow of energy itself. Combine the two, and she just might discover his curiosity; rebuffing him in the proccess. So, instead of peeking ahead with the wonderous powers he possessed, the Dark Lord of the Sith contented himself to a small, sinister smile. If she had a surprise for him, well...he had some surprises of his own.

"I hope for your sake you're correct." Cape billowing out behind him, the sith lord marched onward.

He allowed the man to lead him into the temporarily empty parlor with all its finery; trappings of shimmersilk strung across the walls, statues carved from beskar and fine silverware laid out in preparation for the feast later in the evening. Despite his positon, Karr did not want for wealth. He had taken great care to accumulate his fortune over the years; there was enough wealth in this room to finance a small army. All of this would be converted to credits in the days to come, the pieces sold off at exorbiant prices to fund his future plans. But that was neither here nor now. Where could Shion possibly be-

_There she was._

Karr could see her standing across the hall, blocking his view of a nearby bench. Her back was to him, her attention fixed on the viewport before her, one which affored her a view of the festivities swirling below. Sound after sound drifted up There was a long moment of silence between the two of them, broken only by the guard's nervous breathing. Karr frowned.

"Dismissed, lieutenant." Karr banished him with a point in the distance, and the man all but scuttled outside, shutting the door behind him. Karr waited a moment longer then started forward. Shion remained where she stood, seemingly unaware of his approach. Briefly, he allowed his eyes to roam over her body, what little he could see from this distaince with his eyes alone. She wore a lovely sunset-colored kimono with an azure bow tied round her full waist, and each proved a sharp-yet equally satisfying-contrast to her creme colored tresses.

She was as lovely as the day they'd met. Perhaps even moreso, now that he'd finally learned to appreciate the female form.

"Shion." Karr was surprised to find his throat dry, his words hoarse. Truly, he was somewhat surprised she'd come at all. It had been...awhile. Quite a while. Years since he'd helped her out in Demon Country, losing his virginity to her several months later. Indeed, Shion had been his first in more ways than one. Come to think of it, she never did mention whether or not she produced an heir for her bloodline. Probably not, Karr decided to himself. He would've heard something if he had a son or daughter, right? Definitely. Probably. Maybe_-Whoa!_

Shion turned to face him, and there was a fury in her eyes that brought Karr_-a dark lord of the sith!-_up short and actually caused him to _cringe_ despite his best efforts otherwise. Shion was more than angry, he realized belatedly as he gazed upon her. She was absolutely furious. But Karr knew fury, and knew not to meet it with his own. Violet met saffron, the former narrow in anger, the latter lidded with thinly veiled amusement. The silence lasted the span of two beats before Shion seemed to realize she was _not_ staring at sapphire orbs.

"Your eyes." she gasped, taken aback by the startling golden irises. "So its really true then...?"

Karr permitted himelf a long-suffering sigh. He'd known this was coming. The last time he'd seen Shion had been ten years ago; as Uzumaki Naruto. After agreeing to "assist" her in producing the next priestess, should Moryo ever return from the dead, they had gone their seperate ways. He'd been a jinchuuriki, and she, a priestess. It never would've worked and they'd accepted it-albeit with heavy hearts. They hadn't seen each other since then-though she'd doubtlessly learned of his hostile takeover of Konoha and then the entire planet somtime in the past. He'd left Demon Country untouched out of respect and old feelings for her. Perhaps that had been a mistake.

Perhaps not.

Looking upon her now, he felt something stir in her heart, felt his legs move of their own accord. Now was not the time to think of the past. That way lay ruin.

"Yes." he hissed, his words dark and heavy as he began to advance. "Its true. Every bit of what you've heard. Even _this."_ He gestured and a nearby chair shattered, exploding into a hail of wooden splinters, causing her to flinch. "Are you frightened?" Something twisted inside him at the words, as he watched her flinch. What was that he felt just now? Shame? No, it wasn't quite that. It was...something else? Karr growled and quashed it beneath his boot. Now was not the time for such weakness.

Shion didn't budge as he stepped to her. Insted she surprised him' tentatively stretching an arm up, her fingers cupping his whiskered cheek. Naruto froze. He was suddenly ten years younger, unexperienced in the way of women. In the blink of an eye it all came rushing back to him, the words, the memories, the feel of her skin against his-stop! He jerked himself out of the past with an effort, preventing himself from flow-walking any further than he already had. The act had been instinctive, unintentional, and it frightened him. But not nearly so much as what Shion said next.

"Was this why you wouldn't see me?" her words were soft, full of sympathy.

Karr's face twitched at the mention of his old name, but he allowed it. _There it was again!_ He couldn't bring himself to snap at her, to say that it was nothing of the sort that had prevented him from visiting her since his ascendance to sithdom. As Darth Karr, he could no longer indulge in the naivete of his former life. He had responsibilities. Lives to look after. He could no more prioritize the feelings toward his old friend than he could a craving for ramen that still continued to plague him. He shook himself free.

"You wanted to see me?" Right, he reminded himself. Get down to business.

Abruptly, Shion's sympathy graduated to scorn. Her expression hardened, her feeling simultaneously radiating sorrow and anxiety in the Force. She fidgeted a moment, her hands clenching and unclenching at her sides, through a great act of will she still stood her ground.

"Yes," she nodded. "I wanted to see you. We wanted to see you." _We?_ Karr bristled as Shion stepped backwards, preparing himself for an attack, readying himself for the betrayal he'd expected all along. But no unseen dagger emerged from those folds of her sleeve, only a hand, resting against his palm. He almost jerked his fingers free, but Shion's grip was like durasteel, holdig him fast.

"There's someone I'd like you to meet." She stepped aside, finally revealing the view of the small plasteel bench across the hall; a view she'd been blocking this entire time. At first, Karr didn't understand. Then, he saw someone sitting upon it across the hall.

Karr-Naruto!-felt his blood freeze in his veins.

He found himself staring at a girl all of ten years old, her body wrapped in a golden kimono, complete with a pink bow. His eyes narrowed, raked across her and what she held in her hands cradling what appeared to be a small bauble_-a ball?-_in her palms._ Ah._ He opened himself to the Force without a thought, searching, and found himself confounded. This then, must be Shion's daughter. He could sense that much. But beyond that, a dark haze muddled his foresight. It was the first time such a thing had happened, and it confounded him. Something was wrong. He could sense that the original Karr was in turmoil, suffering, but then that link was all but gone, severed by a haze of pain.

_"What the hell?"_

The clone shook its head, returned its attention to the girl.

Indeed her hair, those long creme-colored tresses, were every bit the same as her mothers, framing a small, heartshaped face from which shone eyes of deep, blinding_...white_? Wait. That, couldn't be right. Karr blinked in surprise. She was staring off into space, past the two of them, as if they weren't even there, only feet away. The fingers of his hand twitched, waved, in a vain attempt to gain her attention. The girl didn't blink, didn't even turn her head. Oh. Oh dear. She couldn't see.

Sweet kami, the girl was _blind._

This wasn't his child, then. Couldn't be. Kami would never give him such a gift, only to take away her sight. He refused to believe it. Would not accept it!

"I see." He began stiffly, the words directed at the child's mother. "You've moved on, then."

Shion's visage crumpled.

"Naruto-

Too late; Karr was shutting down now emotionally, throwing up walls to conceal the hurt he felt. Stupid. Stupid! He'd been a fool to think they would be able to start over again; to think that she hadn't found someone else after all these years. It'd been bound to happen, he simply had considered it, hadn't given it any thought until this very moment...

"Of course." he continued, ignoring her. "Whomever the father is-

"Naruto-

-I hope the two of you are happy-

_"Naruto."_

-kami knows you deserve it, and its not like I _care-_

**"NARUTO!"** Shion's words were a shout, piercing the veil of his anger.

"What?!" He rounded on her with a hiss, eyes blazing.

"Naruto," Shion said softly for a fourth and final time, exasperation evident in her words, "She yours. Your daughter."

Her words crashed into him like a turbolaser bolt.

The Sith Lord blinked in suprise, his eyes fluttering shut and open with all the rapidity of a hummingbird's wingspan. A multitude of emotions roared their way through him, anger, disbelief, doubt, then wariness. Darth or not, Naruto wasn't willing to take Shion's words at face value. Thankfully, he didn't have. He stretched himself out to the Force once more, seeing with unclouded eyes the truth that had so eluded him until this very moment. The strange haze that had so suddenly eclipsed his vision was gone. He could see her now, with eyes wide open. Could feel a part of himself inside her-feel the Force telling that this was his child, his little girl, his daughter. His daughter.

Still unbelieving, Karr stretched out a tendril of awareness towards the girl. She started in surprise, blinked, turned her head toward him, meeting his gaze. Her unseeing eyes pierced him, rooted him to the ground, as did the knowledge that she had felt that, actually sensed his fear and disbelief. She'd been aware. Was aware.

_Ohhhh._

The girl was force sensitive. She had to be.

He suddenly understood why Shion had come.

"Well," Karr tried to speak; found himself croaking in surprise. "This is...unexpected."

"Miri."

"What?"

"That's her name." Shion was smiling now, radiating joy through the Force. "The one we agreed on, remember?"

Karr's knees threatened to buckle. He remained standing by a force of will. Yes, they had agreed on names: Sora if it was a boy, Miri if it was a girl. And this was his girl. His baby girl. _His daughter._ Every instinct made him want to cross the hall to her, to hold the little girl, to embrace her...every instinct but the one that told him she needed to be free to decide, free to act. He could feel his shock and disbelief radiating with the Force, he had to be worrying his apprentices, but he suddenly didn't care.

"How could you keep this from me?" the words were a pained hiss, meant for only her ears. "All this time, and you didn't...

Shion smiled sadly.

"As I recall, you were busy conquering the planet."

Karr shook his head, mystified. Truly, the Force worked in mysterious ways.

"And you're certain she's...ya know...mine?"

The flash of anger he felt was completely genuine.

"I haven't slept with anyone else." she sounded offended, he'd been callous to say such a thing. "

"Alright, stupid question." he turned his head to regard Miri, she was still staring at the two of them-at him-disbelief coloring her expression. She hadn't moved an inch. Another stab to his heart.

"Is she...?"

"Blind?" Shion shook her head. "In a way, yes, but now as you would think. See for yourself."

Before he could ask just what she meant, Miri chose that moment to speak.

"Mommy," she asked softly, gravely, "who is this man?" her voice was musical, like tiny wind chimes blowing in the breeze, a flawless blend of himself and Shion. "Why does he have blonde hair and yellow eyes?" Well, Naruto mused, _that_ disproved any doubts about her eyesight. He caught sight of the tears in Shion's eyes, however.

"Miri," her mother began quietly, "this is your daddy."

Miri froze, her expression transforming from confused to to defiant. She shook her head and suddenly, he knew what he had to say. The Force was prickling at him now, trying to get his attention. He ignored it.

Karr waited, pouring his love for her into the Force, trying to send it through his eyes into hers. "You always knew you had a daddy. Your mommy just had to keep who it was a secret. But now you're old enough to see the truth, to understand it at last. Miri_...I am your father."_ He felt the fear within her_-the lingering pain of not knowing her father-_the one that must've been with her all her life begin to erode. Miri dropped the ball held in her hand. Through the Force he offered her nothing but the truth-for the first time in months, perhaps years, there was nothing of Sith training to his thoughts, nothing of the Jedi, no strategy, no planning. There was only what he felt.

She came to him then, clambering over bench and into his waiting arms. She put her arms around his neck and held tight, as though it would kill her to let go.

"Daddy."

"Yes." Karr couldn't believe it; he was actually choking up. "Your daddy, forever and ever. I'll always be here for you. I'll always keep you safe. Always." He held her to him, stroked her hair, content. The Force was not, however, it would be ignored no longer.

Karr was suddenly struck by a vision so profound, it left him reeling. He saw the galaxy at peace, the world united under one rule. But he did not see himself at the helm. Nay, he saw her, saw Miri, this little girl before him, in his arms, standing at the head of a grand army, proud and defiant in the face of adversity. And then it was gone, and he was back in the present, reeling, from the suddeness of the vision. If he did not succeed, as unlikely as such a thing was, he suddenly felt at peace. If he was merely to lay the foundation for Miri, to prepare the way for _her_ own ascendence to power, then he would do this.

It was...enlightening, to say the least.

Shion opened her mouth to speak-

And then their world shattered.

* * *

_(Back with the original)_

In a bubble of white agony sat a being fighting to hold onto itself, to remember that it was human, the child of two of Konoha's most prominent Shinobi, a young man who had hoped to unite the galaxy in peace under the one rule of the sith. The Murr Talisman was trying to rob him of this, tearing at his resolve with a thousand forms of anguish-acid that licked nerves raw, poison that raised boiling blisters, needles that turned joints into kilns of throbbing inflammation.

The only way to end the pain was to surrender to it, let it melt him down and forge him into something stronger and sturdier and more enduring. Ruled by Karness Muur. Karr understood this. Each moment would bring a new and exquisite agony, as fierce and startling as the last, and the pain would never let him die, or grow numb, or escape into catatonic oblivion. Naruto understood all this-and still he clung to the knowledge that he was Darth Karr, son of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki, dark lord of the sith, fighting a parasitic talisman that was trying to erase who he was. _His very existence._

That last part, Karr repeated twice. It was the only way to keep his hate-and he was going to need his hate. Hate would help him escape, and when he escaped, hate would give him the power to kill this offensive force intruding upon his brain, this disgusting parasite latching onto his heart. It was around this time that he felt a pulse from his clone, felt its distress, felt it dispel.

_'What?'_

He felt his clone dispel, felt the knowledge disperese in his mind. Miri. Daughter. His daughter. The sudden knowledge that he had a daugther galvanized him, tore him away from the pain, back to reality. Joy, the likes of which he had never known, wrenched him from his pain, dragged his mind to the fore. Father. He was a father now, much earlier than he had expected. The joy proved more powerful than his hate, burgenoning him with a strength he'd never before known, creating a chink in his defenses. The Muur Talisman slipped through that chink.

_You are mine._ Karness Muur hissed thinking himself to have won, exultant in his glee. _You will be my new host, from which I will rule..._

**"I don't think so."**

Karr blinked, his golden eyes flecking with crimson. He knew that voice. Hadn't heard it for the last ten years. He'd thought that voice to be gone, alongside its power. He'd been wrong.

_'Kurama?'_

**"Been awhile, kit."**

_'It has. I'd love to stay and chat, but_ _I have more pressing matters.'_

**"So it would seem." **He could feel the fox sifting through is memories.** "You've been busy."**

Naruto fought the urge to laugh as newfound strength flooded his veins. In trying to take hold of him, Karness Muur had delved too deep. He had awoken the slumbering demon deep within him. Kurama, the Nine Tails, had finally stirred from his long rest. And together, his strength pooled with Naruto's, Karness Muur was no match.

_"What?"_ He felt the sith lord's confusion as Karr raised an arm, his consternation as those fingers began to squeeze around the Muur Talisman. _"No. No! Stop! What are you doing?! I am Karness Muur! Lord of the Sith! You cannot do this to me! You cannot! You-_

The spirits cries abruptly abated as Force Lightning crackled across it, seeking out every nook and cranny, shatterpoints all. Naruto groaned in pain as he came back to himself...it was all he could do to create a clone to lean upon. One look at Celeste Morne told him the woman was near death after finally being freed from Karness Muur's influence. But there was no time. He was only thankful that his doppleganger had imprinted Shion with a flying thunder god seal before it had been dispelled. He shook off the ruined remains of the talisman, glad to be rid of its parasitic influence-allowing himself to exult in the return of his partner. But his joy proved short lived; he could feel Shion's distress, radiating outward in the force.

He drew out a comlink and barked an order into it.

"Sakura." He hated calling upon her, hated needing her, but need her he did. "Get down here. I have a patient for you." He didn't wait for her reply. Didn't have time. He was already in motion, already flickering toward Shion, toward his daughter...

* * *

_Please let me be in time! _

A flash of pain stabbed through Karr's brain as he arrived in the same instant that the viewport shattered, dousing them in shards of sharp glass.

Miri cried out in surprise, but Karr was already in motion, wrapping the Force around the three of them like a shroud, shielding them from the deadly shards of glass, brushing them aside like an errant breeze. A pair of guards burst through the door, alerted by the sound, only to be gunned down by a hail of blasterfire from the balcony. Miri whimpered as their lives were extinguished and Karr drew her deeper into his arms, as though he could somehow shelter her from the chaos raging around them. And then the Force was gone. Naruto blinked in surprise, momentarily alarmed to find his powerful connection to the life-serving energies severed, but only for a moment. He was not reliant upon it.

He still had his chakra.

An errant thought produced a trio of shadow clones, one of whom moved to flank him, the remaining two drew Shion and Miri backwards into a corner, brandishing their lightsabers to ward off the hail of blasterfire. He could hear screams and cries of pain from below, apparently his attackers had cut through the crowd-uncaring of the civilians-to get at him. He would've admired their gall if his own child wasn't in danger. As it was, he simply scowled, leering at them as rappeled inside, six in all, not including their leader. He found himself face to face with a pale skinned woman, her hair bound back in a topknot. She strode toward him as though she owned him-and the notion was only vaugely discomforting in the light of his fury.

"Aurra Sing, I presume?" he frowned at the woman, regarding her in cold fury. "Care to tell me how you've cut me off from the Force?"

In answerment, Sing looked over her soulder, to a cage carried by one of her men, a burly Nikto who hefted it with ease. A cube one meter in each dimension, it was made of thin, brightly painted durasteel bars. Within it was a jagged piece of polymer shaped like a stunted tree bole, and holding onto the sculpture was a reptile-a little over a meter long-greenish, with two sets of clawed legs and a long tail. It stared at him as if it were waiting for a reply to its statement. Karr wrinked his nose at it.

_Ysalimir._

They'd stolen that damn thing to cut him off from the Force. Clever. He had a few of his own, but never once had he anticipated them to be used against him. He risked a glance over his shoulder, where Shion and Miri huddled under the protection of his clones. Good. He didn't have to worry about them, then.

"You're coming with us." Sing sneered.

"No," Karr cocked his head aside, regarding Sing and the assasins sent to end him. "I think not."

"Funny."

Sing waved her blaster slowly-lazily, finger on the trigger, beckoning two of her men, a scarred Trandoshan and a red-skinned Twi'lek forward to disarm him. Naruto flicked both wrists, and their approach ended abruptly, just as it had begun. Kunai dropped from his sleeves into his awaiting hands; eliciting an instant's hesitation from each of the aliens. It was more than enough. Another flick sent the knives blurring into motion in a glint of steel opening their throats and severing their trachea in the blink of an eye. Gurgling, they collapsed to the floor.

Two down.

"Defiant to the end, eh? You won't cry like a jedi, will you?" Her eyes searched his, scathingly. "You're not afraid of death. You're like me."

"The only thing we have in common is our love of the color red." Karr replied, discarding his bloodied kunai with a flourish.

"Y-You've got nothing now." one of her men, a human male, laughed at what he thought to be folly. "Nothing but your bloody knives and your fancy karate gimmicks. We have blasters."

Karr chortled; it was a deep, throaty chuckle.

"No," he goaded," what you have are clips, and the hope that when your guns are empty I'm no longer be standing, because if I am_...you'll all be dead before you've reloaded."_

"Don't-

Sing knew what he was planning, but it was already too late, her remaining men had taken the bait.

_"Kill him!"_

Karr said nothing; did nothing. He didn't even tense up as the bounty hunters leveled their weapons, didn't so much as bat an eyelash when they opened fire. Bolt after bolt ripped into his chest, tearing chunks of flesh from his body, sending him reeling backwards. He drew himelf inward, absorbing the agony, channeling it into power. Pain seared up and down his spine as each shot found its mark-some scorched his face, others, his neck and chest, one even found its mark in his skull. And still he did not fall. He heard Miri cry out behind him, her fear galvanized him. He would not die here, in front of his daughter. Not now, not so soon after seeing how important she was to him. learning

And then the fire was over.

Overheated blasters clicked empty, cartridges depleted beyond their required charge. Time seemed to slow as Sing and her cronies reached for fresh clips, ceasing their fire for all of three seconds.

_Now._

Karr straightened, stood woodenly, not taking enough care. His wounds slithered shut, the hole in his head closing as though it had never been. Sing gawped at him like a fish, her lips parted in a wide O. Naruto raised his gaze, eyes gleaming not yellow, but a sinister, slitted scarlet. He grinned wolfishly, exposing deadly canine teeth. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched the woman known as Shion cover her daughter's eyes in a vain attempt to shield her gaze from the impending massacre.

Naruto uttered two words then. Two, simple words, and yet they spelled death for so many.

**"My turn."**

A pair of fresh kunai materialized in his hands. He flung one forward, piercing the human male's throat, sending him to the floor in a pool of his own blood. Even as Sing turned to register this-Karr was already moving; his remaining kunai opening a bloody trench in the chest of a wookie just as it slapped a fresh clip into its bowcaster, bifurcating it at the hip. The furry mammal went down with a yowl of pain, and only a single second had passed, leaving Sing with the Nikto holding the cage, and hapless Kiffar female who seemed to on the verge of pissing her pants. Terrified, she slapped a pair of fresh clips into her blaster rifle, but she was moving slowly Sing realized, even as she reloaded, much too slowly-

Karr discarded the bloodied knives and opened a hand, revealing the spiraling sphere clenched within. Rasengan. He drove the deadly ball of energy into the woman's visage, pupling her face like an orange. The Nikto dropped the ysalimir cage as Sing looked on and tried to draw a hold out pistol, but even that momentary distraction proved costly. Karr leapt on him with an angry hiss and grabbed him by the neck, fingers locking in and around the scaly alien's visage. He gave a savage twist, and the Nikto knew no more. Naruto turned and kicked the ysalimir cage. _Hard._ The lizard-bearing cube went sailing, shrieking out the window, just as Sing finally finished reloading her pistols.

Three seconds had finally elapsed.

She opened fire just as Karr turned on her, reaching for his lightsaber. He never made it.

"Die!" Sing hissed, opening fire on him, wrenching him backward with furious fire. "Die!" Karr staggered, took a step forward, came on relentlessly, uncaring as bolt after bolt slammed into him. She could feel the Force back in him again, just as it had returned to her. Too little too late. "Why won't you die?!" Her pistols clicked empty, in the same instant that his lightsaber sizzled to life. She reached for her own, but his boot was there to greet her, slamming her backwards, hurtling her across the hall and into the wall in a tangle of arms and limbs. Pain exploded into her spine; she was certain she'd broken it. Karr loomed over her like an angry kami, his body riddle with holes, standing tall, and defiant."

"Beneath this face there is more than flesh, more than muscle and bone." he answered as the last of his wounds sizzled shut. "Beneath this face there is an idea, my dear Sing. And ideas_...are blasterproof."_

The Dark Side came roaring over her in a rush before she could speak, crushing her throat in a furious vice, holding her fast. She tried to speak, but no words emerged. Only a rasping gasp. She tried to draw upon that power herself, to drive him off. Karr was on her before she could reciprocate his attack however-stradling her, driving deep his hands into her stomach. The air rushed out her lungs in a whoosh, taking her strength with it and leaving her drained.

"Who hired you?" he demanded to know.

Sing pursed her lips, refused to answer. She refused to give him the satisfaction of screaming, of revealing her employer.

**"WHO HIRED YOU?!" **Saffron bled into scarlet, lending Karr's eyes a strange, amber-colored hue. Snarling he delved into her mind, took what he wanted to know, and left her a ravaged husk in his wake. He gave her no chance to explain herself, offered her no mercy. He simply obliterated her, ruined her mind and rubbed it of all memory. She shrieked and fought him, but he proved stronger than her defenses, every memory she'd ever pertaining to the jedi and the sith-as well as her hatred of them, were obliterated in an instant. She felt his rage as he realized who had sent her, who was responsible for the near death of his daughter.

_Dooku._

Aurra Sing's last sane thought was that in his ignroance Count Dooku had successfully managed to piss off _the_ most overprotective father in the galaxy. She _felt_ rather than saw herself collapse-her world fading to black as Karr cast her down, turning his attention back to his family. His boot descended upon her face almost as an afterthough, driving her into the blessed folds of unconsciousness. After all that had been done to her, Sing considered it a blessing, but all the same, couldn't help but wonder...why was he letting her live? She had no more time for thought however, as the blackness finally took her.

"Are the bad men gone, dadddy?" Miri asked, poking her head out from behind her mother's leg. Karr could see the tears staining her face, she'd felt each of their deaths in the force, and it had hurt her. Was she afraid of him now, he wondered? Frightened of the dark power he'd displayed? He hoped not. He'd only just gotten to know her. He couldn't stand the thought of losing her already.

"Yes," Naruto, the original, the one and only, took her tiny hand in his, used it to draw her close. "They're gone. They're all gone. They'll never hurt you again." She sniffled against him, holding tight to his neck. Naruto allowed himself this moment of weakness, just this once, prepared himself to draw back from her. And then, as children often do where their parents are concerned, Miri surprised him.

"Good." She breathed out, calm and composed. "I'm glad you killed them."

Shion's eyes bucked in surprise.

"Miri...

Just like that however, her anger was gone.

"Can we stay for awhile, mommy?"

"Perhaps," Shion paused, her gaze seeking Karr's, "If its alright with your father."

Naruto nodded his head in aquescience, stifling a long-suffering sigh at his daughter's squeal of delight. He was already irreparably lost when it came to his child, he simply couldn't say no to her. Wordlessly, he sent dispatched his clones to tend to the chaos below. It would be a simple matter to calm the guests and convince them that all was well. That wasn't what what concerned him. He could feel Hanabi's approach alongside Ventress and the others. Every force-sensitive individual in his care, and several who weren't, had detected his sudden outpouring of the Force. They'd each sensed the chaos during the attack, and once they saw Miri, they were going to have questions. All of them.

Sweet Kami, how was he going to break this to them?

* * *

**A/N: And there you have it! Naruto, like Jacen, knows how to flow-walk, but to an extent hereito unseen. He's aware of all that will happen in the future, all the chaos, ware, and strife, and he's all but determined to change it. He has also seen the past, proving the fact that the Jedi DID wipe out the Uzumaki several decades before. And Naruto, has a daughter?! With Shion?! Well now...were you expecting that, hmm? She's not quite blind, but as you can already see, she's powerful in the Force. VERY powerful. She is, after all, the daughter of two accomplished parents.**

**Sing made her move...and got WRECKED. If you didn't feel bad for Sidious or Dooku before, you probably will now. They've just sealed their fate, messing with Naruto's little princess. Kudos if you noticed the V for Vendetta bit towards the end. I just couldn't help myself XD I know I was a bit harsh on Onoki in the beginning but...meh. I really don't like him. At all. Karr's the regular Vader of his era, in case you haven't realized. Now, to address a few more matters.**

**Celeste Morne will indeeed survive, though what side she takes in the coming conflict remains to be seen(And depends on your votes!) But where oh where does this chaos leave Anakin and Obi-Wan? What about Shaak Ti? Will they ever escape from Karr's clutches? How will the others take the news of his daughter? Find out next time...**

**...On Dark Side of the Moon!**

**On another note...**

**WE VENTURE INTO EPISODE II TERRITORY SOON! Expect things to be a helluva lot different with Karr meddling where he shouldn't. God, I almost feel bad for Dooku...**

**Continue to send your votes and your opinions in! I enjoy them! They're giving me all kinds of ideas! And be sure to stay tuned for more chapters! I plan to continue this story alongside the rest of my works in tandem. I want to at least finish these two before taking on another. So...hope ya enjoyed!**

**And of course, in the immortal words of Darth Vader...**

**...REVIEW! It is your destiny! **

**R&R! =D**


	10. Father

**A/N: MWAHAHAHA! I return! It's been a terribly long time since I last touched this story, and after that last chapter -which was basically a filler- I'm proud to say that we are finally back on track! As are my plans for moving. I just laid carpet in two rooms, all that's left is to clear out a few more things, then the wedding, and I'll officially be leaving Atglen! Its rather bittersweet, seeing as I have spent all twenty-three years of my life here, but in the same vein, I think its high time for change. And on another note...we finally see what the devil Naruto is up to...**

**...prepare thyself for the next chapter! Onward! We finally see everyone's reaction to Miri in this chapter and dear kami...its gonna be one helluva reaction. As will Karr's when he finally decides to wreak his great and fatherly wrath upon Dooku-and potentially Sidious-for what's been done...and with that...**

**...AWAY WE GO!**

_"It is a wise father that knows his own child."_

_~William Shakespeare._

**Father**

Darth Karr didn't consider himself a wise father. To be honest, he didn't consider himself much of a father _at all._ Having only just laid eyes on his ten-year-old daughter _and_ prevented an attempt on her life within mere minutes of meeting her...well, he didn't think that made for a very good track record. And he'd killed those men and women right in front of her in cold blood, all save one.

By all rights, that made him a _terrible_ father.

And yet, for the life of him, for reasons he still could not bring himself to understand...Miri wouldn't stop holding his hand. She hadn't cried, not once, even when a contingent of the Shadow Guard came to clear out the bodies and escort them to a safe location. Indeed she was brave, his daughter, more than he gave her credit for. That bravery would be sorely tested in the next five minutes. She was about to meet the members of his little family; his wives, apprentices, everyone the entity known as Darth Karr held near and dear to his heart. He wasn't quite sure how Miri would react. She was resilient, he knew this. But would she be able to withstand the scrutiny that was sure to follow afterward? That thought niggled at him, nagging him with doubt.

Speaking of doubt...

Karr had chosen to let Aurra Sing live -possibly against his better judgement- but she wouldn't wake for some time after being that brutal mind-rubbing he'd given her. She'd retain all her skills-the same skills that first allowed her to get within a hairsbreadth of ending his life-but wouldn't remember anything of her ill-fated past with the Jedi, her overwhelming hatred where they were concerned, even her memories of that agreement with Count Dooku was likely to be rendered forfeit.

_Dooku._

Karr seethed at the mere thought of the man, fingers fisting around those of his daughter's. The man had made an attempt on his life, and unknowingly put Miri in danger. Karr didn't care who the target was, the only thing that mattered wat that an attempt had been made and that Miri had been _there._

He didn't know if Sidious had a hand in this, but he wouldn't put it past him. Sith were known for their treachery. And had his little darling not been present, he might've held their attempt in respect. As things were now, he felt only a roiling, seething, all-encompassing fury, boiling in his blood one he stored for later use. That fury was BARELY tempered by the knowledge that his daughter still drew breath. Just barely. Yes, Miri still lived. But Sing...Sing would wish she was dead.

She would have only her name, her skills, and the knowledge that she owed her life to a Sith Lord.

As for his daughter...

At present Miri sat in his lap under the watchful eye of her mother, marvelling at his ability to comb her hair using the Force alone. The three of them were safe and secure, surrounded by well-trained men and women but that didn't stop her from asking him all sorts of questions; inquiries one might well expect from a little girl. How did you and mommy meet? Why are you eyes like that? What's your favorite color? Mine's orange by the way_-and he loved her even more for that!-_and then finally, she would ask-do I have any brothers and sisters?

That last one made Karr choke a little and steer the conversation in another direction.

Miri would if everything went well, have _many_ step-siblings only a few months from now. Bariss was dangerously close to overdue, and Samui was right behind her. He could feel their approach now like fire in his blood radiating anxiety and concern even as they struggled to come to terms with the realization that he was not alone. They had to have sensed Miri by now. Karr could understand their confusion and radiated calmness into the Force; working to placate the roiling malestrom of emotion that was fast approaching his door.

He himself could feel his daughter in the Force, a bright, unsullied prescence that sang of himself and Shion. There could be no mistaking that. Those who were Force Sensitive would understand. Temari and those who did share such senstivity, well...there would be some telling involved there. He risked extending his awareness and found Anakin and Kenobi below, mingling with the guests, as per his demand. They hadn't yet tried to make their escape. But they would of this much he was certain. And when they did, he would have his scapegoat.

**"You're quite the schemer now, aren't you?"**

Ah yes, and then there was the matter of his tenant. Naruto hadn't heard a word from Kurama in the last decade; he'd assumed the old fox had finally gone his own way pending their merger. Apparently not. He could feel the kitsune even now, sifting through ten years worth of memories, catching up on what he'd missed.

**"Ho?"** He felt a certain perverse musement from Kurama. **"You killed the Hyuuga girl. And then...Kurenai! Minutes apart! Ha!" **Laughter reverberated off the halls of his mind.** "Didn't think you had it in you boy!"**

Naruto ruthlessly supressed the twinge of guilt he felt at those words. They had been his sacrifices to sithood; Hinata his love, and Kurenai, his master. Their deaths had been unplesant, but neccessary all the same. He dishonored them by feeling guilt. Would he do it again, given a second chance? Without a second thought. Or so he liked to tell himself. Truth be told, if faced with that god-awful choice a second time, he didn't know if he'd be able to go through with it. Thankfuly, he'd never have to.

_'Ten years changes a man.'_

**"So it would seem..."**

Together their eyes drifted to Miri, still sitting contentedly in Naruto's lap. There was a silence.

Kurama snickered.

_'Not a word, damn you!' _Karr was determined not to let the bastard fox ruin this moment. He wanted to enjoy this brief instant of serenity before the duties of sithdom and state came crashing down on his head. Peace did not always have to be a lie, he'd found. Sometimes it could be downright pleasant. There was a time and place for all things. This was merely one of them.

"I hate to admit it...but you've surprised me, Naruto. You really have." Shion's comment was so out of place that Naruto-Karr-actually blinked. He turned to face the priestess and she must've seen something in his face_-she always could read him like a book-_because she moved to sit beside him, placing her fingers in their daughter's hair, running them across her scalp with such gentleness, that only a mother could possibly know. Miri hummed contentedly to herself at Shion's touch, kicking her little feet against Naruto's legs.

"She really does take after you." Her words were soft, meant for his ears and his ears alone.

Karr snorted.

"Does she now?"

"Mmhmm." Shion continued to stroke their daughter's hair. "She can see things...sense them before they happen."

"She's force-sensitive, then." Naruto made no secret in his interest; it had been glaringly apparent from the moment he laid eyes upon Miri. She was strong in the Force, perhaps even stronger than him. But she lacked that fundamental spark that made a Sith, she was too kind, too pure. Try, as he might, he couldn't gratify the thought of teaching her the ways of the dark side. To taint such a pure light-to snuff it out-to take this from his own flesh and blood...he just couldn't bear the thought.

"Will you train her?" Her pale eyes pierced him, rooted him.

"Shion, I-

_"Daddy?"_

Karr blinked, distracted by a gentle tug at his belt, and his daughter's voice. When he looked down he saw Miri holding his lightsaber in her hands, her small fingers tracing the hilt with complete and utter fascination, her eyes wide with the wonderment of a child. Her thumb lingered over the activation stud, brushing against it with apparent curiousity.

"What is this?" she asked. "What does this button do?"

Karr's eyes bucked as she prepared to press it.

"Don't-

Too late.

His body moved on pure instinct; his fingers shifting a millimeter to the right, nudging his daughter backwards and off his lap just as a sizzling line of red fizzled into existence and pierced where his head would've been had she remained in his lap. Shion exhaled a sharp breath; this was only her second time seeing a lightsaber. Miri remained ignorant of her parent's concern, gazing up at the blazing blade with awe. She moved a hand to the right and the blade moved with her, swaying ungainly from side to side. Karr blanched, fearful she would take her hand off, or worse.

"That, Miri, is my lightsaber." he instructed. "It is not a toy."

Miri looked at him with her grave white eyes.

"I want one."

"I'll show you how to build your own."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

Miri pressed the button again and handed it to him. Shion reached down for her daughter and pulled her into her lap, obviously relieved the danger was past. Karr exhaled heavily into the awkward silence. Well now, he hadn't expected that. He wasn't quite sure how he felt about letting Miri handle a lightsaber...

"M'lord," The red-faced lieutenant that had first brought him up to Shion chose that moment to peek inside-his face flushed-whether from fear or excitement Karr knew not. "They're here to see you." He bore a heavy blaster-burn upon his cheek, a badge of honor gained during his valiant attempt to prevent Sing and her band of miscreants from breaching the perimeter. A bacta patch had been applied to the wound, and though it was all too likely to scar, he'd no doubt the man would bear it with pride in his continued service to Karr's slowly-expanding empire. Still, the man's bravery intrigued him. And it proved a grateful distraction from such thought to the future.

"Soldier," he began slowly, "What is your name?" When the man did not answer, he continued. "I understand I have you to thank for preventing some of our intruders from paying me a visit." The Force told him all he needed to know about this man but still he asked anyway; knowing that this youth had managed to kill two of Sing's men before he'd been overwhelmed.

"L-Lieutenant Erv Lekauf, sir."

Shion arched an eyebrow in unspoken question; Karr nodded and pretended to ponder the matter a moment.

"It's Captain now."

The young man's face grew considerably more flushed.

"O-Oh." He made a small, gasping sound of surprise. "Thank you, sir."

"I should be the one thanking you, captain." Karr continued, suddenly aware of Miri's attention. "Were it not for you, I might not be sitting here now." A white lie but a neccessary one. Two additional men wouldn't have made a significant difference against him, nor would they have prevailed. But one of them might've hurt Miri and for Lekauf's unseen intervention, Karr found himself feeling overly gracious. As Lekauf moved to exit, he made a silent note to commend the man further for his bravery before the night was through. Valor in the face of danger must always be rewarded.

Karr checked his comlink for a final update on Celeste Morne: according to Sakura, she was stable resting comfortably. He very much doubted that. After being bonded with the Muur Talisman for so long, she had to be feeling the effects of its sudden abscence. Hell, she was probably experiencing withdrawal. He promised himself he would pay her a visit after this...assuming she survived.

"M'lord?" Lekauf tentatively raised his voice. "I'm afraid I can't keep them any longer.

Naruto turned his golden gaze to Shion once more, saw the confusion and apprehension there, and mouthed a single sentence.

_Let me do the talking._

Witht that, he took a deep breath, drew himself up, and just like that, he was Darth Karr once more.

"Send them in."

Scarce had he spoken than Lekauf nodded, ducking back into the archway.

"Are you sure this is wise?" Shion whispered; she was just as anxious as the others; having no idea of who stood on the other side of the door. Behind the doors Lekauf made a sound of offense, as though someone had violently wrencd hehim aside. Karr almost cringed. He didn't need the Force to know who stood behind those doors. Straightening, he put on his most winning smile, just in time for the doors to wrench themselves open and outward. A pair of steely green eyes were the first to narrow upon him.

"Hello, Temari." he greeted.

* * *

Anakin Skywalker had never felt so much turmoil in his young life.

Forced to attend what Karr called his "festivities" the padawan now found himself well out of his comfort zone. Deprived of his jedi vestments and garbed in strange attire he'd never before seen, he stood surrounded by guards and beings he could not recognize let alone comprehend. Any attempt to make conversation with his escort on his part did not end well either. Some favored him with piteous glances-others gazed upon him with outright scorn and derision. He could feel various levels of suspicion and mistrust from them, probably because he still had his lightsaber. But so too did these guards, and from the look of it, they knew how to use them if the dead bodies of the intruders were any indication.

Evidently, they too, were not welcome here.

"Another jedi," one of the nearby guests spat at him in passing. "Come to kill lord Karr, have you? Well, your plan failed!"

It took all Anakin had to reign in his anger. How could he expect these people to understand he hadn't been responsible for the attack? When the bounty hunters came blazing into the plaza, there hadn't been any panic on the part of the guests; they'd merely parted to make way and allow Karr's many enforcers to reduce their numbers. Nevertheless, a scant few had managed to escape the net and make it to the Dark Lord himself. It had been a short battle; Karr had sent each of them to the void almost immediately.

The guards surrounding him hadn't been swayed either; they'd stayed on task and never taken their eyes from him, not once. Their loyalty was admirable...if not infuriating.

His master was here somewhere, he knew that-he could sense him, but the guards prevented him from taking any action to find him. As did the being who called himself Grievous. One glance at the Kaleesh was more than enough to confirm his hatred for the jedi; whenever their gazes met those masked eyes of his kept narrowing in contempt. There could be no doubt that the masked warrior had been ruthlessly trained in the way of the blade, the many lightsabers dangling at his waist-belt told the unspoken story of the jedi he'd killed under Karr's tutelage.

"Don't even think about it, jedi." He chortled bleakly. "I've been given leave to kill you if you try to escape."

Anakin bristled at the threat.

What the devil was going on...?

* * *

Hanabi had never been more grateful for an interruption in all her with the Raikage had proven dreadfully boring, dull, even. Were it not for the sudden attack by Aurra Sing, she was certain to have died from sheer boredom. She'd successfully slain three of the ten assailants and wounded a score more before the remainder made it to the balcony and launched their assault on Karr. He'd since shut himself down in Force since then, leaving her no clue as to what had happened. For all she knew, he could be dead.

_Please don't let him be dead._

Saberstaff in hand, she nudged or shoved aside the guests with the Force, making her way past the parapet to the balcony. Already she could feel the others gathering there, feel their confusion and dismay in the Force like a wild thing, pained and dismayed. An icy blanket of fear draped itself across her shoulders, dampening her bloodlust and enthusiasm.

_No._

She hastened her pace, climbed the stairs in a flurry of motion.

_No!_

Someone cried out as she thrust them aside, nearly maddened by panic.

_NO!_

Hanabi's feet all but flew from the floor as if borne by wings on high, carrying her through the halls to her destination. She recognized some of the others as she approached the throne room some of whom she knew: Temari, Samui, Mei, Kurotsuchi, Aayla, Ventress, Brood, Bariss and several others that she failed to recognize. But there was one there she did not fail to recognize. _Shion._ She knew the priestess, as described by her sister years before; this couldn't be anyone but her. And there, nestled in her lap, eyes wide with wonder, a little girl. She shone like a beacon in the Force, her prescence a flawless mix of Shion and...wait. That could not be. It couldn't. Someone else was a part of her. Someone she knew; someone she knew and loved.

_Karr._

A sudden, sickening sensation seized upon her as she turned her eyes toward her master.

Karr regarded them a moment longer, lounging languidly upon his throne, seemingly without a care in the world. His golden gaze raked across each of them in turn, culling wheat from chaff. He had shut himself down in the force Hanabi realized. Whatever he was feeling, it was being kept well hidden. That was just as well she decided; if her suspicions were correct, he had a good deal of explaining to do. This little girl, she couldn't possibly be...

"Ladies," Karr began softly, steepling his fingers. "I thank you all for your concern. But as you can see, I'm quite alright." His sight swept the room for a second time, fixating upon Hanabi. And then Karr returned to the Force, his powerful prescence shrouding them in sweet, singular satisfaction. "Now that you are here, this is someone I would like you to meet." He returned his attention to Shion-rather, the child in her lap. He made a slight, beckoning gesture.

"Daddy!"

The little girl in Shion's lap scrambled down and went to him; a collective gasp rose from all those assembled as Karr drew her into his arms. Temari was the first to recover her voice, little more than a whisper.

"You've...gotta be kidding me."

Karr nodded and rose, taking the child with him.

"Everyone...I would like you to meet my daughter, Miri."

There was a silence, deafening in its obscurity. Then:

_"WHAT?!"_

**A/N: And there you have it! Naruto, like Jacen, knows how to flow-walk, but to an extent hereito unseen. He's aware of all that will happen in the future, all the chaos, ware, and strife, and he's all but determined to change it. He has also seen the past, proving the fact that the Jedi DID wipe out the Uzumaki several decades before. And Naruto, has a daughter?! With Shion?! Well now...were you expecting that, hmm? She's not quite blind, but as you can already see, she's powerful in the Force. VERY powerful. She is, after all, the daughter of two accomplished parents.**

**Sing made her move...and got WRECKED. If you didn't feel bad for Sidious or Dooku before, you probably will now. They've just sealed their fate, messing with Naruto's little princess. Kudos if you noticed the V for Vendetta bit towards the end. I just couldn't help myself XD I know I was a bit harsh on Onoki in the beginning but...meh. I really don't like him. At all. Karr's the regular Vader of his era, in case you haven't realized. Now, to address a few more matters.**

**WE VENTURE INTO EPISODE II TERRITORY SOON! Expect hilarity next chapter! Karr has a lot of explaining to do with the ladies...**

**Continue to send your votes and your opinions in! I enjoy them! They're giving me all kinds of ideas! And be sure to stay tuned for more chapters! I plan to continue this story alongside the rest of my works in tandem. I want to at least finish these two before taking on another. So...hope ya enjoyed!**

**And of course, in the immortal words of Darth Vader...**

**...REVIEW! It is your destiny! **

**R&R! =D**


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